


Dead Flowers

by beansandchill, Doceo_Percepto



Series: The Breaking of the Spoon [2]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: Bad Ending, Dissociation, Dominator is very inexperienced, F/M, Forced Masturbation, Minor Character Deaths, More Broken Bones, More Smooching, PTSD, Rape, Sadism, a botched but successful declawing, in case the first ones weren't enough, severe abuse of Wander's mouth/gums, she's not letting that stop her, slight haematophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-01-30 15:27:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12656265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beansandchill/pseuds/beansandchill, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doceo_Percepto/pseuds/Doceo_Percepto
Summary: Wander and Sylvia hide out on the secret planet. Meanwhile, Lord Dominator doesn't think any planet should stay secret for long.Cover art bythis awesome person!





	1. Chapter 1

                                                                                         

 

“Wander?”

_Hey Wander, I have a new game~_

“Buddy, wake up-“

_just stick out your tongue-_

“Wander!”

“Hrmf?” Wander jerked upright in the saddle, blinking blurriness from his eyes.

“We’re about there.” Sylvia gestured, and sure enough, there was a sight so achingly warm, so comforting: one humble verdant planet cozily embraced by the shadows of two others. The secret planet. The one place Dominator had not yet reached, the one planet so modest and quiet that not even she could find it. Soft relief fanned outward from his heart, and he slumped gratefully, petting Sylvia’s comb.

“Gosh, it feels like comin’ home, doesn’t it?” Home to Wander usually was more about people than places. But maybe the Secret Planet was an exception, ‘cause it meant both a place and people. It sure would be nice to feel safe.

“It really does,” she agreed.

It was quiet, out in space, with blackness engulfing everything, and only a few very distant stars twinkling. Sylvia made no move towards the secret planet. After a moment’s pause, she mustered the courage to utter, “….Wander?”

“Mmh, what’s buzzin’ in your noggin?”

“What are we gonna tell them all?”

“Whaddaya mean, Syl?” His chipper tone had never sounded so fake.

“About what happened.” Sylvia swallowed. “Why you’re hurt.”

Wander’s fingers toyed with the bottom of Sylvia’s comb. “We don’t gotta tell ‘em nothin’.”

“Wander, we’ve been gone for a week. They knew you went to Dominator’s ship, and they knew I went after you… They’re gonna wanna know.”

Wander flinched, and his answer took a long time to form, “Then, we’ll say it’s ‘cause I got in a fight with her, and you an’ Peepers an’ Hater came t’save me.”

Sylvia could see why he would want to say that. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. “All right,” she eyed him worriedly. “But, between you and me…. What _did_ happen?”

“Gosh.” Wander avoided her gaze and shifted uneasily in the saddle. She felt sick to her stomach. What was so terrible that he couldn’t share it with her?

“You know I’m not gonna judge you, right?” she said carefully.

“It’s not that-“ his voice sounded tight, constricted.

“Then what is it?”

He clenched one hand on the saddle and his teeth sunk into his lower lip.

“Whoa, Wander, hey-“

“There’s nothin’ much more to it,” he eked out, several words wobbling into high octaves. “Just – hangin’ around her ship, and then you saved me. I’m real grateful for that, Sylvia.”

Hanging around. That’s how he phrased it. As if he and Dominator were just pals having a good time. But she had been _hurting_ him and _badly_ and he hadn’t slept at all last night, not that she had seen, and…

She rubbed between her eyes in frustration, and an overwhelming urge to punch Dominator. “All right, fine. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here, you know that, right?”

“Uhhuh.”

Figuring that was the best she’d be able to get out of him, Sylvia started to descend towards the planet’s surface.

Wander added, real quick, “Can you not tell anyone I’m hurt?”

It occurred to Sylvia that he had wanted to ask this for a long time. “Wander, someone needs to treat your wounds…” she frowned as her feet hit solid ground, and she trotted towards the little wooden shack that she herself had constructed and set up (the shack that, of course, concealed a large, mostly underground sprawl of rooms).

“I’m doin’ all right. Dominator already fixed them, mostly.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t exactly trust _her_ ,” Sylvia snapped, with more aggression than intended, and Wander winced. She forced her next words to be softer, “Look, we don’t have to go parading around that you’re hurt, but at least someone needs to take a look at you.”

She stopped before the wooden door to the shack, and Wander sighed. “Well, if you think that’s what’s best.”

“I do.” She rapped twice on the door firmly. There wasn’t a reply immediately; in the interim, she craned her head back to Wander. “Maybe we can get in without attracting too much attention, and get you fixed up before we meet with anyone else.”

Wander nodded, and Sylvia pretended not to notice the way he scrunched his injured leg closer to his body, as if trying to hide it beneath his furry skirt.

The sliding hatch on the door snapped open. A crown appeared, then muffled talking. Sylvia heard, “a stool, please?” and then more shuffling.

Finally, King Bingleborp reached a height suitable to the eye slot. “Hello, what’s the pass-“ His eyes went round. He vanished from the slot.

“Uh?” Sylvia blinked. Okay? Where had he –

“WANDER AND SYLVIA ARE BACK!!” King Bingleborp screeched from behind the door.

A collective hurrah pulsed inside the shack, and Sylvia cringed. So much for a stealthy entrance.

The door was thrown open, and King Bingleborp ushered them inside while other refugees poured in from other rooms, hubbub growing louder in their excitement with folks mumbling and chattering and chirping. Swiftly the area was flooded with people. The door shut behind Sylvia, and she felt oddly trapped within the pleasantly yellow-lit cavern, hundreds of eyes from dozens of different planets eagerly staring at them.

Faint possessiveness prickled in her chest: Wander needed help, not a ton of people unaware of what had happened to him.

Wander, evidently, didn’t agree. “Heya everyone!” based on those two words, he had a classic Wander grin plastered on his face. “I’m mighty glad to see you all again!”

“Our heroes!” someone shouted, to which Wander replied, “aw, shucks,” but people kept piping up, “we were so worried!” and another, “I knew you’d make it back all right!”

“Welcome back! Yes, very good you’ve returned!” King Bingleborp cried over the din, and then grabbed Sylvia’s saddle blanket to peer intently at Wander, “So did you defeat her!? Is the villainous conqueror gone for good!?”

Suddenly, Wander’s mood didn’t seem so perfect. “Ah, uh-“

“You can’t tell us you didn’t stop her!”

“We fought Dominator,” Sylvia broke in, “but we barely escaped. Remember, the mission was rescuing Wander, not stopping Dominator.”

King Bingleborp leaned closer to Wander. “But you were on Lord Dominator’s ship, weren’t you? Did you learn anything about her defenses, or any weaknesses we can exploit?”

“Hey!” Sylvia felt Wander freeze up in the saddle. “That’s enough! There wasn’t any time for us to look for weaknesses! There’s nothing more we could have done. We can try again, with more people, but –“ she faltered. “Right now we just need” _time for Wander to heal_ “a break,” she finished lamely.

“What’s wrong with your leg?” one tiny large-eyed child uttered, and the hubbub spread;

“It ain’t nothin’ too bad-“ Wander’s tiny voice tried to say, but noise in the cavern swelled again –

“Wander’s hurt!”

“Oh, poor dear, it must have been a difficult battle-“

“Against Lord Dominator, what can you expect?”

“Probably lucky to make it out alive-“

“Oh, but is he okay?”

“I can’t see what’s wrong, can you see?”

“Okay, okay!” Sylvia raised in her hands in a placating gesture. “Uh, yeah, Wander got a bit scraped up fighting Dominator, but really, he’s going to be fine. We could use some medical attention, though. Anybody know first aid?”

The talking died down to a murmur, then silence. Dozens of eyes flicked between each other, as if they could seek out a medical expert by sight.

“Anyone?” Sylvia whined.

Scowling, Ripov finally jerked her hand up. “I can.” Those around her looked at her in bewilderment, and she crossed her arms fiercely. “Acid burns, broken bones, that kinda crud. Getting hurt is in my line of work. So is taking care of it.”

“Great! Everybody else, we can talk later. Ripov?” Sylvia nodded to an adjoining room, where hopefully they could get some privacy.

The bounty hunter jerked her chin in a gesture of assent.

“But wait –“ King Binglebop waggled his arms. “You can’t just come in and say nothing about what happened! You were gone for days!”

“A lot happened, all right?”

“But what about Dominator!”

Sylvia’s hand tightened into a fist. “Look, pal. My mission was to rescue Wander, and that is all I needed to accomplish.”

Something about her must have made an impression on King Binglebop, for he stepped aside, “ah yes, of course, best to – to get him looked at, yes-“

“Trust me, we’ll update all of you guys later,” Sylvia said. “But no, we didn’t learn anything new about Dominator.” _Except how much of an awful person she is._

Sylvia worked her way to the adjoining room, avoiding as many questions as possible, and sighed in relief once she slipped in. Boy, this was already turning out to be an overwhelming mess. At least now they were hidden and safe from Dominator, instead of wandering about in the galaxy. But it would be hard to fend off so many curious people.

This room clearly served as a bedroom and living room mixed together. Blankets and cloth were knotted into hammocks and set up in varying alcoves around the walls, while the middle area had a red plush couch and a low standing table.

Sylvia carefully removed Wander from her saddle and placed him on the couch. He bounced on it, and gave a ridiculous, ill-suited grin.

Ripov closed the door behind them, and crossed her arms. “Seems like you don’t want a lot of questions.”

Sylvia snorted.

“Everyone’s gonna wanna know what happened.”

“We fought Dominator, that’s all. So how good are you at taking care of injuries?”

“I’m not a doctor,” Ripov said, “but I’ve got more in-field experience than anybody else out there, so that’s something.”

That was probably going to have to be good enough.

Ripov turned her attention to the most obvious injury on Wander’s body. “Is this about your leg?”

“Weeee-eell, I’m really not doin’ too badly,” Wander said matter-of-factly. “I’ve mostly been managin’ all right-“

“He can’t walk on that leg,” Sylvia interjected.

“I’ll bet.” Ripov knelt beside him and squinted at the affected limb. There wasn’t any fur to speak of in the area, and his skin had turned a disturbing mottled grey. “A burn, right?”

Wander nodded meekly.

“From lava,” Sylvia added flatly.

“This is old, too. Several days old, at least. Aaand this is more recent.” Ripov pointed just above the burn injury, where there was a splotch of matted blood.

Sylvia shuddered. That particular wound she had been there to witness – that was from the icicle Dominator had dug into his thigh.

Ripov’s appraisal moved to his fingers, which still had little strings of bandages stuck to them. “And this was treated days ago.”

Sylvia put her hands on her hips.

“So we’re pretending this is all from a fight?” Ripov began to tug bandages and rubbing alcohol from her pants pockets.

“It is,” Sylvia ground out.

Ripov shrugged. She ignored the large burn at first, in favor of cleaning out and bandaging the stab wound on his thigh. As she worked, she said flatly, “There’s nothing inside her. I watched her destroy my own planet. She was laughing while people burned.” Ripov gritted her teeth. “Friends, family – doesn’t mean anything to her. Just something to destroy. I was lucky to get out myself.”

A few moments of silence, then Ripov knotted the last bandage and stood. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. Never knew you that well, but nobody deserves this.”

Wander, for once, didn’t seem to know how to reply, and before he could, Ripov turned her attention to his fingers. “Like I thought, looks like the bones have been reset….”

“She did that,” Wander uttered.

Sylvia startled – she had thought the watchdogs reset the bones. “”To hurt it more?” Sylvia asked in bewilderment.

“No, she was tryin’ to heal ‘em.”

Sylvia looked disturbed, and on the brink of correcting Wander that no, Dominator wouldn’t do that, and _don’t you dare think she has a good bone in her body –_

Wander spared her the effort by adding, “I know it wasn’t outta niceness or nothin’.”

Ripov’s eyes traveled slowly between Wander and Sylvia, reading the situation. “Well,” she said carefully, “there’s nothin’ to do except bind them together to keep them straight. But the swelling is minor. They’re well on their way to healing.”

“I do heal fast!”

As Ripov wrapped his fingers, Sylvia asked anxiously, “so what can you do to fix his leg?”

“Not much.”

“What?” Sylvia uncrossed her arms, “Then I’m gonna find someone who can.”

“Look all you want, but this burn goes through the muscle. You can’t fix that.”

“Well then what _can_ we do?” Sylvia grumbled, her anger mounting at the idea Dominator had caused irrevocable damage.

“Only thing to do is take out the dead flesh,” Ripov admitted reluctantly. “It’s preventing the healthy tissue from healing right. Can infect the rest of the leg if we don’t do something about it.”

Wander looked horrified, and craned away from his leg as if he wished it were not part of his body. “Gosh, I didn’t know that could happen – the Watchdogs just said to wrap it and wait for it to heal!”

“Maybe they didn’t know much about burns,” Ripov grabbed her own wrist and a haunted look went into her eyes. “But I’ve seen them before. Necrotic flesh can infect healthy tissue, invade your body, cause sores and sickness-“

Wander let out an _“Eep!”_ and shrank away from Ripov. Sighing, Sylvia placed a gentle hand on his head and ruffled his hair.

“All right, cut the dramatics.”

Ripov shook her head. “Right. Yeah.” She pulled out a knife. “We need to take out the tissue.”

“Whoa, whoa!” Sylvia leapt in front of Wander. “What are you doing?”

Ripov glared. “Didn’t you hear me? It’s not doing him any good to have a bunch of dead skin and muscle – you can’t heal that.”

“Well what’s it gonna look like after? You’re gonna take off pieces of his leg!”

“It’s to prevent worse things from happening.”

“No, no, no.” Sylvia crossed her arms firmly. “I get why, but-“ Wander literally had just returned from Dominator’s ship; bringing knives of all things into the deal, just – no. “We’re not doing that.”

Wander laid a hand on Sylvia’s shoulder, and she half-turned back to him, a helpless expression on her face. It hurt something deep to see him, fur ruffled and matted, and his eyes more exhausted than she had ever seen them.

But his expression was certain. “It’s all right, Syl. Like she said, it ain’t doin’ me any good anyway. I’d rather just get off any ol’ skin that’s not doing anything, and then the rest can heal up the way it’s suppos’d to.”

“No.” Sylvia faced Ripov sternly. “At least, not right now. Give him a day or two to settle in, at least!”

“It doesn’t bug me,” Wander said, “if it’s the right thing to do to get my leg to heal.”

But how was that possible? It had to be bothering him, and he just wasn’t sharing. Sylvia gritted her teeth and wanted to shake some sense into Wander. Before he’d been flinching at her touch alone, and now he was just fine with Ripov cutting into his leg?

“Another day,” Sylvia said firmly, and Ripov saluted lazily.

Sylvia looked on worriedly as Ripov gave Wander a walking stick, and the furry nomad hobbled back out to enthusiastically greet the crowd. Oh grop, she had a bad feeling about all of this…


	2. Chapter 2

Wander was old, according to the lifespans of all other people and creatures he had ever encountered. He didn’t feel old, at least, not most of the time, but if ever he sat down to ponder it (which he did only rarely) he could admit that he had lived for hundreds of years (and if he ever sat down to ponder it, which he never did, he knew he could be expected to live for hundreds more).

He didn’t remember his childhood, that was something. Once, he used to reach his mind out like a net, and capture all the memories he could still recall from his youth. He’d replay them over and over, as if doing so would preserve those nostalgic sights, sounds, and emotions, for an eternity. As if doing so would preserve the unusual and mystical power they held over him, as all fond old memories hold.

For a while, this worked. Wherever he roamed, he carried with him the metaphorical net of his youth, which became more and more treasured with reflection. But time passed. Tiny details slipped through the holes of the net. He was aware of pieces missing, but never could recover what had been lost.

And time passed. Newer memories became older ones. Older ones became distant ones. Distant ones quietly faded. The last fragments slipped from the net. 

There were two ways to approach this – with despair, or with hope, and so Wander chose hope (maybe after a few years of despair). The formative years of his life may have been eaten by time (he couldn’t remember his planet, his parents, his original friends, if he had any at all), but he could remember what it was that had always mattered the most to him: people. The people you met along the way, the people you helped, the people you traveled with. That was what mattered.

He was happiest around people. 

That’s who he was, that’s who he had always been.

So when he was on the one single refuge of a distraught galaxy, with all its surviving inhabitants around him, he should be happy. He really, really, _really_ should be.

These were his friends, there were the people he had most recently committed himself to helping, and he loved seeing each face as much as the next. He had in fact, been brimming with excitement to return to them and to feel safe on the Secret Planet. 

But he didn’t feel happy. He didn’t feel safe. And that was _wrong._

“We remembered your wise lesson, Heroic Wander,” Prince Cashmere was saying, “but Dominator turned out to be a very different threat! Once the food sack of Thuringian was demolished, we fled our planet, but we were hailed down by Beeza and her Fleas – what a brave people! Together with them we sought safety here, only to learn it was your doing that this planet existed for our safety!”

“Weeeeell, I didn’t _make_ the planet,” Wander didn’t feel safe at all and that made no sense, because he was here with friends. Prince Cashmere, like several had already done just before him, was simply relaying the story of how he ended up on the Secret Planet, and it made sense that after all the loss these people had experienced, they’d want to share their story with the person who they felt had helped them so much through other trying times. Perhaps they expected his help again, to comfort them and give them a new direction to go?

But the thought of this didn’t invigorate him the way it usually did – instead it clenched tight under his ribs like a vice, and send fear pumping from his heart. The mere prospect of them needing him made his breath shallow and short. “It’s really Syl you ought to thank,” he forced out, because the last thing these destitute people needed was him breaking down. “She’s the one who stumbled by this planet, and she’s the one who built up this shack, ‘cause she knew I’d end up invitin’ all my friends.”

“Ah, Mighty Sylvia!” Prince Cashmere huffed in fond recollection, “She too is brave! I, and everyone here, have eternal gratitude for the both of you.”

“Aw, shucks.” Wander shifted the walking stick in his hand and averted his eyes. 

“What about you?” King Draykor said in his usual gravely voice. “Many of our stories are more of the same – Dominator came, and destroyed our planet, and our survivors fled.” Draykor squeezed Demurra’s hand, as if the memory still disturbed him, and she patted his arm. “But you went on board her ship, or so they say!”

The gathered crowd; Prince Cashmere, King Draykor, Princess Demurra, Destructor, and dozens others, all had their intent attention on Wander, and the suffocating feeling in his ribs heightened. 

“That’s right,” Stella Starbella declared with awe. “Now, I’ve faced many fiendish foes, but I don’t know if even I would be brave enough to board _that_ ship. However did you survive?”

“No chance you convinced her to be good?” Destructor asked hopefully.

“You did get hurt,” Stella said, worriedly appraising his leg. “You sure that bounty hunter fixed you up all right? It sure looks like it needs more -“ she reached toward the leg, and Wander yelped, skittering back.

“Yup, yup, Ripov definitely knows what she’s doing, it’s totally fine!”

“I’ll pummel Dominator to dirt for all she’s done,” Badlands Dan muttered, pounding his fist. “Friends protect friends.”

Wander nodded weakly and emitted an involuntary, high pitch whine. _Relax relax relax_ nothing scary at all was going on and he had no reason to be so high strung, no reason to panic. The crowd of people could seem suffocating, trapping him in the room, but that wasn’t true – these were his friends, and he always loved being around his friends, and they shouldn’t seem intimidating or overwhelming. He shouldn’t feel anxious at the prospect of helping them, either, because helping was what he did, it was everything about him: if Wander didn’t help and if he didn’t have his hat, was he even Wander at all?

“Hey man,” Jeff shifted up from the group and placed his hand on Wander’s shoulder; it took more than Wander was willing to admit to not flinch. He remembered slightly too late that Jeff had some ability to read minds, and then he immediately tried to shut down on any revealing thoughts. 

If Jeff read any of them, he made no comment. “Everyone here has got something to thank you for,” Jeff drawled, his expression fixed in a blissed-out contentment. “And if some bad stuff happened to you, we’re gonna understand. Sometimes you gotta really process, you know, man? Just sit back, and let time do the healing.”

And now Wander was concerned that Jeff had seen something after all. “I’m fine!” Wander squeaked, writhing out from under Jeff’s hand. “Totally fine! Wow, I’ve never been so fine! I’M NOT SCARED!” 

“Whoa man….” Jeff’s head bobbed to the amassed people, “give the little guy and I some time to talk.”

The others looked worriedly amongst themselves, but obediently cleared out, until it was only Wander and Jeff left in that particular room. Jeff guided Wander to a table and sat him down; Wander leaned the walking stick against the table and did his best to avoid Jeff’s gaze. 

“Something’s really got you tangled up,” Jeff said, and when Wander tensed, he added, “I don’t need to know, man. Sometimes it helps to share. Sometimes? It doesn’t.” Jeff spread his palms out in an accepting gesture. “You do what works for you, man. Do what feels right.” Jeff levitated a glass of apple juice from across the room, and set it in front of Wander.

Wander looked down at his hands, knotting together his fingers nervously and sending small twinges of pain through the broken ones. 

“I don’t know what will work,” he yelped, tone wavering. “She – she’s not… golly.” He hesitated one second more, staring fixedly at his hands, and the words spilled, “she ain’t like you, or Hater, or anyone else I’d met. I-I don’t think she’s got some deep loneliness, I don’t think she’s evil ‘cause she hates herself, or ‘cause she’s lost, or ‘cause no one’s ever shown her kindness.”

Jeff nodded patiently.

“What if – what if someone people are just evil?” Wander shrank into himself. 

“That’s heavy,” Jeff answered, eyes troubled. “But if some people are just evil, you need to roll with it. You need to stop trying to help them. You need to help the people that they hurt, you feel me?”

Again, the thought of helping the refugees both appealed to him and terrified him. He met Jeff’s eyes with this conflicting emotion. “I-don’t-know-if-I-can.”

“’Course you can. You’re my good pal Tumbleweed. Or Wander, now. I learned everything I know about helping from you. Man, my life is changed ‘cause of you.”

Wander squeaked and furiously tangled his fingers together. “I-couldn’t-help-her.”

“But you helped everybody else.”

That made sense, of course it made sense – he should remember that he could be helpful, that he was always helpful – until Dominator. Until she not only didn’t need or want his help, but his desire to help did nothing but draw her attention in the worst of ways. 

“She-hurt-me,” Wander rushed to say, and then immediately launched into more words, as if he could erase what he had said, “I thought we got out, and that meant it’d be over, and she wouldn’t bother me any more, but then I couldn’t sleep and that’s _okay_ it was just that night, it’s nothin’ too bad,” his voice leapt up an octave and never quite returned to the original pitch, “but then every time someone touches me it’s-like-she’s-still-there and she’s not she’s gone and she-can’t-find-us-here-“ His jaw clenched and his eyes widened because _whatifshedid_ and _woulditbehisfault_ and _hecouldn’tfaceheragain._

“So it’s really just silly,” Wander burst out, much much louder than he intended. Flinching, he adjusted his volume, “I didn’t spend barely a week on her ship– what’s – what’s a few days to hundreds of years?” He laughed hoarsely, eyes darting. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing! It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it’s nothing –“

He accidentally twisted one of his broken fingers too hard, “Ah! Oh…” another uneasy giggle. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

Jeff blinked slowly. “Whoa.”

“But it’s nothing,” Wander said frantically. “I just, gotta get back to being my good ‘ol Wandery self and then I can help – I can help everybody! I can – I can get my hat back, and be me and I’ll help every single person!” His mind tried to remind himself that if he helped every person, that meant he’d be helping Dominator and _can you really do that, really?_ And he shut down hard on that thought, “Everybody, every person!”

“Sometimes, the helper needs help.” Jeff reached out as if to touch Wander, then quietly withdrew his hand, remembering. “While you’re here, let people help you. Accept you need it. Don’t worry about taking care of everybody.”

Wander nearly bit through his lip. He nodded weakly. “Sure. Easy-peasy. I’ll do that. ‘xcept I really ought to help someone. Just one person, maybe. T’make sure I still can.”

“Hey man, you know something? You’re helping every one of us here, right now. We’re all here in this shelter because of you. Without you…” Jeff paused. “We’d be dust specks in space now. You’re doing a great thing.”

“I just couldn’t let you guys suffer, when Syl and I found such a perfect planet-“

“That’s what makes you the best helper,” Jeff said sagely, “when there’s someone in need of help, there isn’t any choice for you if you should or not. And when someone really needs help again, you’re gonna be there. But for now? Take some time to be yourself. Reflect. Just breathe.”

Wander nodded meekly. 

“You let me know if you need to talk it out again.” Jeff smiled wistfully. “Mustard or mayo, mustard or mayo? Hah, I owe the most to you, little buddy. So I’m always here for you.”

Jeff left, and Wander gazed after him, feeling more lost than he ever had before. Before Dominator, Major Threat had been the biggest, baddest villain he’d ever tried to befriend. But it had worked. He was Jeff now, and mellow, and easy-going, always looking for the best in people. 

Seeing him – seeing everyone – felt weird. Because he didn’t feel like himself. It was like they all knew him, or knew some form of him, but he struggled to relate to the person that they knew.

_An enemy is just a friend you haven’t made yet._

But not always. Most of the time, sure. But not always. 

It was hard now, to say some absolute statement like that, knowing there was a revision tacked on, a subtitle of _except sometimes_. Because he wasn’t the Wander who believed in it 100%, he was the _except sometimes_ Wander, that had met someone he couldn’t fix, and he had given up. He was the _except sometimes_ Wander that faced a wall he couldn’t surmount, and he was the _except sometimes_ Wander that got swift and brutal punishment for his naiveté. 

It shouldn’t matter. He should perk right up and go along his way, just the same as before, and do his best to help as many people as he could. 

Instead….. instead he sat here, staring without seeing, and feeling like he wasn’t himself at all. Scared, flinching from touch, frightened of helping lest the repercussions strike him. No hat. 

No, he didn’t feel like Wander. Not for one bit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I’m back! I had massive trouble writing this chapter despite its relative simplicity, and ended up enlisting the help of the wonderful Beans to get it finished. This chapter was a collaborative effort between her and I, and I want to give her a huge thanks firstly for writing a good portion of it, and secondly for helping me grasp the characters’ emotions better. Thanks Beans c:
> 
> Also, I’m not entirely satisfied with the first two chapters, but for now I’ll just be moving forward to write the rest of the story, rather than focusing on editing previous chapters. It took me some time to get my feet under me with Wander no longer being around Dominator. X]

Sylvia paced back and forth while Ripov watched her raptly.

“We need to strike, as soon as possible – now if we can.”

“What makes _now_ less likely for us to all get skewered?”

“She’s weaker.” Sylvia fixed her gaze on Ripov. “When we left her ship, she was – I mean, she had been _shot_ , she was bleeding, she didn’t look good.”

Ripov’s eyebrows shot up. “No chance she just kicked the bucket after you left?”

Sylvia rubbed her arm. “Doubt it. She was still vertical, and we barely got out.”

“She just doesn’t die.”

“But she _can_ be killed.” Sylvia hesitated as her mind flitted to Wander. The little furball wasn’t going to like that. He understood that Dominator wouldn’t stop unless someone stopped _her_ , but actually hearing of deliberate intent might be difficult for him. At this point, Sylvia thought he would accept it, but accepting something is very different than being okay with it.

Truthfully, after her pacifistic sojourns with Wander, even Sylvia wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of _killing_. Fighting, sure. But coming in with intent to kill? It didn’t make her feel good inside. 

“We proved on the ship she’s not some immortal untouchable monster or anything,” Sylvia continued, doing her best to shake away the ugly feeling settling in her stomach. “All of us managed to hurt her in some way – even Wander. I bet if we strike soon, we could overwhelm her.”

“Before her own injuries heal…” Ripov nodded. “That would be smart. But what about her entire bot army? Her weakness is only an advantage for us if we can get past the bots.”

Sylvia chewed her lip. “No, we can make this work. Maybe we need multiple groups. Jeff, Starbella and you have ships. We’ll dodge her lasers and board her ship. Two groups will distract the bots, and another will go after Dominator herself.”

“That might just work, if we load enough people onto those ships.”

“But we can’t bring Wander,” Sylvia suddenly added. “At all. He can’t go back on that ship. Someone – someone should stay back and look after him.” Worry deepened in her brow. Oh, Wander. Whether or not he liked the plan, he might want to come along with them, to look after them… It was just the sort of thing he’d do, despite being so injured.

Ripov nodded. “Someone can stay.”

“Someone strong,” Sylvia supplied. “Who can protect him if anything goes wrong.”

“Most fighters should be on board Dominator’s ship,” Ripov pointed out. “We can’t really spare anybody – especially not you, Sylvia.”

Sylvia started in surprise. “I didn’t – I mean, I’m going to be right there with you guys, taking out Dominator. But someone else strong.” Sylvia chewed her lip. At this point, she wasn’t sure she’d be satisfied with anyone else looking after Wander. What if something happened to him? What if they couldn’t protect him? 

“Hey.” Ripov interjected. “He’ll be fine. He’ll be safe, hidden here. It’s us we ought to worry about once we leave this planet.”

“Yeah….” Sylvia cringed as she thought again of Wander’s injuries. So much had happened in such a short time aboard that awful ship… 

“Sylvia,” Ripov snapped, “keep it together. We need a plan, and we need everyone to be focused if we’re going to take her down.”

Sylvia nodded, temporarily pushing aside her worries for Wander. “Right. Let’s call everyone together and-“

“No.”

“What?”

Ripov pointed a finger at Sylvia. “You need a break.”

“What?” Sylvia looked indignant. “I don’t need a break – I’m ready to take her on, right now!”

Ripov quirked a brow. “Yeah, all right. You look about ready to drop, and you’re all scratched up too. We can’t just run after her unprepared and exhausted. Give it a day. Tomorrow night, we’ll talk to everyone. Get the plan set. And we’ll track her down.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Sylvia awoke suddenly to the sound of a banjo playing. She – and Wander also – had found a free room near the back of the shack’s admittedly enormous internal area. The room was barely more than an egg-shaped dead end of a cave, but Wander insisted they take this room rather than any of the occupied rooms the refugees readily offered up to trade him.

“I’m not gonna take anyone’s home away,” Wander had said firmly. Sylvia had to restrain herself from reminding Wander that they had built the entire shack and deserved a little better than the darkest, barest corner of the place. It was just a testament to his good nature that after everything, he still wanted the best for everyone around him. 

The refugees happily gathered flowers and tiny trinkets to decorate the dead-end room, and did their best to spruce up the place for Wander and Sylvia. 

It was to this flower-choked tiny room that Sylvia woke, crammed uncomfortably in a cot against the wall, while Wander’s music bounced almost eerily off the naked floor and ceiling.

Wander sat at the edge of the cot, tapping his good foot and humming to the tune he strummed. Sylvia couldn’t help noticing he held his bad leg awkwardly still, and the concentrated look in his face suggested he was trying to hide how much it hurt.

“G’morning, Syl!” he chimed cheerfully once he noticed she was awake.

Sylvia sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, pushing aside her irritation at the uncomfortable sleeping location. “Hey, buddy, how’re you feeling?”

He smiled wide, placing his banjo to the side of him. “‘M doin’ pretty great!” She knew he was lying, but didn’t press the matter further. 

Looking into his eyes, however, she could tell he had built emotional walls around himself. Whatever happened on that ship must’ve been really bad. 

Wander’s face grew worried. “Hey, Syl, are ya hungry? I can go make us some food if ya’d like.”

“N-no, I’m fine,” she said, though she was feeling a bit peckish. 

He cocked his head sideways, reaching for his walking stick. 

“How about, I go whip us up some grub, and you stay put?” she asked hastily: she wasn’t about to let her best friend hurt himself just to take care of her.

“Wouldn’t ya need any help though?” he asked, using the walking stick to lift himself off the cot. He winced as he placed a small amount of weight on his bad leg, but his face swiftly snapped back to normal. 

“No,” she responded, “I’ll be fine getting food on my own.”

Wander hobbled closer to her. “Are ya okay?”

 _Classic wander…_ she thought, _even when he’s in pain, he still cares about everyone else._ She felt so terrible, however, for everything that he had been through. _I’m gonna do whatever it takes. I’m gonna stop Dominator._

“I’m fine; go sit back down and rest,” she responded. 

Wander’s face fell. “I could go and... _not_ help,” he said hopefully.

“Buddy, you’re going to help and you know it. I got this.”

“Okay, Syl, I know y’can do this on your own,” he replied. His standing position didn’t falter, however, and she could sense, regardless of his words, that he was going to end up following her anyway. 

As she began walking out of the room, she glanced over her shoulder. He was still standing there, smiling from ear to ear. 

Her heart swelled. He was so…. so _good_. Kind-spirited and ever-benevolent in a way she had never seen in any one else before him. Always trying to make everyone around him happy. She just… wished that she could do something to make him really happy. No, not even that. She would settle with just helping _him_ feel safe. 

“I’ll be right back,” Sylvia told him. 

She wound her way through the shack, dodging questions and people as best she could, and slipped out the front door.

Some of the trees in the area had begun producing fruit, so finding food for herself and Wander wasn’t going to be difficult. She stopped herself for a moment. 

“Wander deserves more than just fruit,” she said to herself. If she had the resources, she’d provide him with an entire buffet. She’d have it filled with all the food he enjoyed, and just let him eat until his heart’s content. Fruit wasn’t going to be enough for him. 

“I like fruit jus’ fine!” a voice chimed up from behind her.

She rolled her eyes involuntarily. Obviously, it was Wander, trying to help even though she didn’t need it. “Wander! What are you doing here?!”

“Weeeeellll,” his voice became higher pitched toward the end, “I reckon I can’t jus’ let my best buddy go all by herself! An’ I still got one functioning leg and two arms,” he held out his arms for emphasis, stumbling a bit as he tried to balance himself on one leg, “so I can’t jus’ let ya go all by yaself!”

She smiled, despite how frustrated she was by his...constant needing to help. She just wanted him to feel better, physically. Maybe helping some folks could help him mentally. She quickly recalled the recent incident when the watchdogs had fixed him up a meal. How he’d fallen off the chair and threw up his cake. The way he hadn’t really been sleeping much, and the weird way he’d been acting in general. She could see everything Dominator did, but she didn’t really know. And helping people was his thing, maybe he could find some kind of solace in this, even though he wouldn’t be much actual help climbing trees and gathering fruit. 

“Wander…” she began, “you can help me then, if it’ll make you feel better.”

He beamed. “Thanks, Syl.”

“Look, I’ll climb up this tree and get ourselves a couple star fruits. I’ll toss ‘em down to you, and you can catch them for me. Sound good?”

Wander nodded enthusiastically. “Sure thing!”

Sylvia jumped onto one of the tree trunks, and began climbing. Wander knew he wouldn’t be able to do that, even if he really tried. He stayed put beneath her as she ascended up the tree. But the further up she climbed, the more uneasiness settled into his bones. He and Sylvia were alone out here. It wasn’t like in the shack, where they were surrounded by dozens of friends…. Out in the woods, they were entirely alone, and now Sylvia was getting further and further out of reach of him….

On the ground like this, there wasn’t anyone able to help him if….. if _she_ …

Nausea began to creep up on him. The shadows beneath the trees suddenly seemed much larger, much darker, and Lord Dominator could be lurking anywhere, waiting for his solitude so she could strike….

His fight or flight instinct kicked in and he began scrambling up the tree, dropping his walking stick on the ground. Sylvia heard the small squeals of fear as they exited from his mouth, and she could hear them getting closer. She turned her head back, “Wander! You don’t need to climb with me!”

“I want to anyway!” Wander yelled back, and he… he looked _terrified._

“Whoa buddy, what’s wrong?” she clambered onto one of the branches, stood herself up, then reached a hand out for Wander to grab onto. He took it, holding a little too tightly, and pulled himself onto the branch with her. 

Instead of answering, Wander buried his face against her fur and tears began to flow freely. Helplessly, Sylvia loosely embraced him.

“Wander…” she began, unable to get the words out. Why had this happened? He had been so fine just moments ago and now he was crying…. 

No, he hadn’t really been fine. She’d known that from the moment she woke up. But to break down like this so suddenly? 

“H-hey, it’s okay, buddy….” She soothed, petting down the soft fur on his back. Petting usually had a unique way of calming Wander, of making him all melty and happy. This time, the muscles in his back remained tense and quivering beneath her hand. Sylvia had never felt more helpless. “Just let it out….”

_‘Please talk to me…’_

__

‘Why are you crying?’

__

_‘What happened on that ship?’_

There was so much she wanted to ask him--so many questions she had for him, but she couldn’t bring herself to try and force anything out of him. Right now he needed her support, not an interrogation. 

The tears slowly subsided. Sylvia pulled back from the hug, cupping his head in her hand and lifting it up. He looked away from her, the fur on his cheeks matted from his tears. “‘m sorry, Syl. Guess I missed ya more’n I thought.” 

“There’s no need to apologize,” Sylvia said, both stern and gentle. “You don’t need to apologize about any of this. It’s not your fault.”

Fear flashed in his eyes, and Sylvia instantly regretted whatever it was in her words that had reminded him. “I missed you too,” she added hurriedly. “I missed you a ton, buddy. And I’ll protect you. I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you again.”

He nodded meekly, and the smile he offered was full of love. But his eyes were full of disbelief, and that broke her. Wander didn’t think anyone could protect him. 

It was tragically ironic that Sylvia had been afraid of the exact same thing the day before. Seeing her buddy so hurt had a way of shattering any belief that he could ever feel safe again. 

Sylvia jerked her gaze away. “You and I need to get some food in our stomachs, all right? I could eat an entire tree at this point!”

Wander chuckled. “ _Sylvia!_ That doesn’t sound good at all!”

“Well, then we’d better get some stuff that does.” It was heartening to see Wander perk up a bit, but Sylvia knew better than ever that he was still hurting, and still hiding his hurt. 

As she pulled clusters of star fruits from the branches and tossed them to the ground below, she stewed in her own doubt. How was Wander going to take the news that they were going after Dominator? And… after everything was over… was he going to be okay again?


	4. Chapter 4

Once enough fruits were gathered, Sylvia and Wander returned to the shack, where the cafeteria area was mostly empty, but for three or four stragglers. After they laid the fruits out on the table, Sylvia immediately dove into eating them with the zeal of a person who hadn’t eaten in a day.

Wander, meanwhile, picked one up and made a great show out of polishing it and inspecting it for imperfections. In fact, he hadn’t had a full meal since being on board Lord Hater’s ship, and that was several days ago. So he was hungry, yes. But actually eating. That was a different thing.

It was a _normal_ thing. A _everybody-does-it-so-why-is-this-an-issue_ thing.

His tongue licked at the gaps in his teeth, and picked up the faintest vestige of blood.

“Everything okay there?” Sylvia reached as if to place her hand on his shoulder, and then, thinking better of it, withdrew.

“Uhhuh!” chirped Wander. “Everything’s a-okay.”

“It’s…” Sylvia’s eyes flitted to the fruits. “It’s okay that they’re fruits, right? If – if you want something else-“

Wander winced. “The fruits are great! Delicious!” For extra validity, Wander bit into the starfruit. Citric juices dribbled from the empty spaces where teeth were supposed to be, and Wander –

_That’s so gross. Lick it off!_

Licked it up, heat scrawling across his cheeks.

“You’re sure, Wander?”

Wander provided an expression that hopefully looked more like a smile than a grimace. “Yum!”

“You’d let me know if it were a problem, right?” Sylvia said cautiously. “Like, like the cake?” her tone had that bemused edge that clearly implied she had no idea why a person might have an issue with eating something as simple as cake, and Wander was already cringing in humiliation.

“It ain’t like that,” he muttered hastily.

Sylvia paused. He could see the question at the tip of her tongue. She wanted to know what had happened; why it was a problem at all.

Wander decided to not give her the chance to ask. “So!” he started, fixing on his most cheerful expression, “watcha plannin’ on doing today, Syl?”

“What do you wanna do?”

“Weeeell, how about we relax by the river and drink some fancy fruity drink with a tiny umbrella?” 

“Wander, that’s something _I’d_ want to do, not something _you’d_ want to do.”

“But Sylvia, I’m happy to do whatever you wanna do.”

“All right I see that’s getting nowhere,” Sylvia muttered. “How about you just start by eating another starfruit? You’ve gotta be hungry.”

“Sure!” Wander grabbed another starfruit and was talking himself into eating it when a hand touched his shoulder. “Aauahh!” The starfruit went flying – and so did Wander, as he launched across the table and ended up in a tangled pile of limbs on the floor. 

Ripov winced. “Oh, crud, sorry Wander-“

Sylvia glared.

“I said hey,” Ripov muttered. 

“Must’ve just not heard ya.” Wander hurriedly righted himself before Sylvia could fuss over him. “It’s no problem at all. Hullo, Ripov! Did y’want a fruit?” Wander snatched a starfruit and held it out, hoping that if he gave away enough of the fruits, there wouldn’t be any left for Sylvia to tell him to eat.

Ripov shook her head. “Already ate. I’m just here to debride your leg, remember?”

“De- _what_ my leg?” he squealed.

“Get the dead tissue off. So it can heal right.”

“Oh, right!”

Sylvia hovered over him, “is that okay, Wander? If you’re not ready-“

“I’m ready.” He patted Sylvia’s hand for extra assurance, and smiled up at her. In this regard, he really was ready. Ripov had told him yesterday it wouldn’t hurt, and he believed her. Anyway, even if it did, it wasn’t going to be like what Dominator did to him. In fact, Wander didn’t feel any fear or worry at all about Ripov carving off the ruined skin from his leg. He wasn’t sure why – because it seemed like the sort of thing you should at least be a little nervous about – but he wasn’t the least bit concerned.

“You’re sure? I can stay with you-“

Wander shook his head. “That’s all right, Syl! I’ll find ya right after and we can have those fancy extra fruity drinks with the little umbrellas!”

“I didn’t agree to –“ Sylvia sighed, defeated. “All right, Wander. We’ll make our own better versions of them, all right?”

“Right!” 

Ripov guided Wander back to Sylvia and Wander’s room, likely to have a bit of privacy, and Wander shuffled a little closer to Ripov. He might not be scared of the procedure she was going to do, but being alone made him just a teensy tiny bit nervous. 

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere,” Ripov said, and Wander winced. Was his nervousness that obvious?

Once they reached the room, Wander clambered onto the cot and swung his good leg. 

“It’s not going to hurt,” Ripov assured him again.

Wander wasn’t sure he would have minded either way. “I appreciate y’doin’ this for me,” he said, as she settled by his leg and set her knife to the mottled black skin. “I didn’t know all that awful stuff ‘bout infections and nekr-nekrah-“

“Necrotic.”

“Necrotic flesh. It’s awful nice of ya t’look after me like this.”

“Hey, it’s what friends do, right?” she shot him a sideways half-smile. “I’ve heard everyone around the shack talking about you. No matter what’s going on, you always want to help. Like some kinda hero.”

Wander flushed. “Aw, that’s not true – I jus’ love helpin’ folks.”

Ripov offered a half shrug. “If you ask me, that’s what heroes do.”

“Pshhh, heroes are all about armor and waving swords, and – oh, like Sir Bradley Starlight!”

“I uh, don’t know who that is.”

“Well, he’s a hero,” Wander told her matter-of-factly. “An’ he smooched a beautiful princess named Princess Remora, and they’re just the best couple I’ve ever seen and boy, if you wanna meet ‘em, I can introduce ya! I know he’s around here s-“

“Wander, are you ever gonna talk about what happened?”

“With Brad and Remora’s romance?” Wander squeaked.

Ripov shot him a flat, unamused look. “I’m not stupid, all right? I know you didn’t get these injuries in a battle.”

“Wh-wha?”

“I’m not going to force anything out of you.”

“I don’t know what ya mean, but that’s a sudden change of topic-“

“I think it’s something you gotta take time with,” Ripov continued. “But here’s the deal: keeping stuff quiet, pretending you’re okay – that’s not good. It doesn’t help you. And it doesn’t help the people around you.”

Wander was becoming increasingly certain his diaphragm wasn’t functioning properly. “There’s nothin’ important to say,” Wander squeezed out of shriveled lungs. “Are y’sure you didn’t wanna hear about Brad and Remora?”

“No. You’re trying to avoid the subject. Again, I’m not telling you what to do. But you’ll explode if you just keep it bottled up.” 

“I’m not gonna _explooode,_ silly!”

“Sylvia’s here for you,” Ripov said, gentler now. “Maybe think about opening up to her. That’s all I mean.”

“Sure thing.” Wander tried to nod convincingly. His torso felt like it was being squeezed through a tube and he wanted very much to tell Ripov that it wasn’t that easy, but he choked down the words -

“Okay. I think I’ve done everything I can about your leg, so-“

“ _I-can’t-tell-her,”_ the words burst out, and Wander froze. 

Ripov gazed up at him expectedly.

It was altogether too late to take the words back, and new ones were bubbling to the surface, so he rambled on, “Sh-she’s already all worked up ‘bout me bein’ on Dom’s ship and all, and if she knew what’d happened an’ how I felt, she’d - well, she’d get so worried and I don’t want her t’be _more_ worried.”

“She needs to know. For both your sakes.”

Wander shook his head fiercely. “N-no, I can’t-“

Ripov hesitated, an idea sparking. “Then… can you tell me?”

In theory, yes. Ripov wasn’t going to fuss and worry and hover like Sylvia. So really it seemed like a simple idea. But he was starting to shiver and he wasn’t quite sure why, and that made it somewhat difficult to get words out.

“Wander? Wander, are you okay?”

He let out a drawn-out whine. “Iii’m right as rain.” He wrapped his arms around himself, and added, “maybe jus’ not really up to talkin’ about – well, about Dom and all that…”

“All right.” Ripov put her hands up. “Not gonna press it. I’m gonna wrap your leg with new bandages, and then you’ll be ready to go on your way, all right?”

Wander nodded anxiously.

 

Wander returned to Sylvia, a meek expression on his face and a new clean bandage wrapped around his leg. He still leaned heavily on his walking stick, but Sylvia found comfort in him placing just a bit more weight on the hurt leg. 

As promised, Wander then helped Sylvia try to create another their own version of a fruity drink with a tiny umbrella. They included fruits from the island, a few herbs, and water from the river. Two tiny umbrellas were salvaged from the shack.

When they settled down beside the river and sipped at the drink, they almost immediately spat it right out – it turned out to be a truly disgusting drink, a mix of flavors that should probably never have been mixed.

But Sylvia and Wander enjoyed laughing over the atrocity they had created, and for just a little bit of time, things felt _normal._

It didn’t last. Wander’s voice was too fake, and he flinched any time her hand got too close or if she moved too fast. The entire pretense of a pleasant recline by the river was – very obviously – only for Sylvia’s benefit. 

As the afternoon wore on, Sylvia’s own mood got bleaker.

“Hey, Wander…?” 

“Mhmm?” 

Sylvia hesitated. She didn’t want to bring it up, and remove any illusion of peace, however weak, but… Wander did need to know. “Buddy, I’m meeting with the other survivors tonight. We’re going to discuss a way to defeat Dominator.”

Wander’s eyes shot wide. “What? NO!”

“We have to, Wander-“

“Syl, you can’t go! She’s gonna hurt you!”

“Wander, think about how close we got to defeating her last time….”

“Peepers _died_ last time,” screeched Wander.

Sylvia winced. “We can’t let that sacrifice be in vain – Wander, she’s wounded, worse than anyone’s ever seen her before! We have to take this opportunity-“

“T’ _kill?”_

“You knew it might come to that-“

“No, no, no,” Wander grasped at his fur. “Syl, I won’t let you!”

“I’ll have an army behind me-“

“Please-“ his eyes were at their roundest and saddest – and gosh darnit, Sylvia’s heart wasn’t made of stone. She weakened, and helplessly raised her hands. 

“I’m sorry, Wander…. This is where we stop her. We have to. Someone has to, and we’re all that’s left.”

Wander shook his head fiercely from side to side. “I can’t let you do that!”

She moved to touch his shoulder, and then wanted to kick herself when Wander flinched away. Gone was any sense of comfort or ease, however slight – now her friend was bunched up and tense. “Don’t you remember us talking before?” she tried softly. “When we said we might have to defeat her?” The word _kill_ loomed, at once silent and blaringly loud. 

Wander nodded weakly. “I-I just didn’t think it’d be so soon.”

“Now’s the only time. When she’s still recovering from our last attack.”

He peered those big, kind eyes up at her. “Then let me come with you.”

Dread ripped through her. “No, Wander-“

“But if you’re goin-“

She’d thought the trauma would refrain him from ever boarding that infernal ship again. Clearly, some forces were stronger than even his deepest fears. “No matter what,” she growled out, “you can’t follow us, do you understand?”

He didn’t answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was feeling merciful - the procedure Ripov does is not painless in reality. Be thankful now, Wander.


	5. Chapter 5

“We’re all here for the same reason. Lord Dominator came into this galaxy, and destroyed _our_ homes, and _our_ friends. But this is where it stops. This is where we all band together and stop _her._ ”

Dozens of doubtful faces gazed back at her. 

Beeza lifted her hand. “Uhhh, yeah. If we couldn’t defeat her before, why do we stand any chance now?”

“This time is different. This time she’s not at her full strength – Hater, Commander Peepers, Wander, and I already fought her. We need to strike quickly, while she’s weak – before she has time to rebuild.”

There was a murmuring of approval. 

“Plus,” Sylvia added, “We’ve never tried to attack her all at once – with people from every planet. Don’t you understand? This is our chance! We either bring her down now… or we run forever.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Frederick the space worm input, towering above everyone else. “We need to go quickly!” This was swiftly seconded by many, who for the first time, had looks of hope.

Sylvia’s heart swelled with pride. These were the survivors, these were a people ready to take back their galaxy.

“All right, here’s the plan: we’ll take three ships out – Ripov’s, Jeff’s, and Starbella’s. Everyone who wants to fight will be split between those three vessels, and we’ll attack her from three different sections of her ship. That should split up her remaining forces, and make it easier to break through her defenses. I’ll go after Dominator in a smaller group – maybe five or six.”

“I want to be in that smaller group,” Ripov volunteered, and Sylvia nodded.

“Anyone else? Know that it’s going to be very dangerous-”

“Oooo, me!” Frederick waved a little stick hand. 

“You got it,” Sylvia said – having a giant destructive space worm with rows of massive teeth definitely couldn’t hurt their cause.

Destructor also volunteered, followed by Princess Demurra and then King Draykor. Sylvia was about to announce it a done deal when a tiny magenta individual leapt to the front of the assembled crowd and waved his hand frantically. “I’ll go too!” declared King Bingleborp.

Sylvia quirked a brow. “Uhhh, are you sure?”

“She’s ruined my planet! Scattered my people! I want revenge - personally!”

“I respect that but-“

“Revenge I say!” Bingleborp shook his tiny fist. 

Sylvia smushed her lips together and looked side to side. Bravery and courage were great and all, but was it even morally appropriate to let King Bingleborp join them in their battle against Dominator? 

“REVENGE!” Bingleborp shook with emotion.

“Okay, fine, front lines for you,” Sylvia sighed, and counted on him getting too scared and fleeing before they ever faced Dominator. “Now that we’ve settled that, there’s one more matter to take care of. We need at least one person to stay back with Wander.”

The gathered people looked amongst themselves. 

“At least one,” Sylvia said. “Maybe two. Or a small group. Someone strong.”

A man with a fast food tag on his shirt lifted his hand, until the ‘someone strong’ clause, and then he abashedly lowered it.

“You can still stay back if you don’t want to fight,” Sylvia pointed out to him. He immediately sighed in relief. 

“But still, someone strong…?” Sylvia tried again – someone had to stay back with Wander, both to protect him, and to guarantee he wouldn’t follow them aboard exactly like (she was sure) he planned to. 

Finally, another hand raised.

“You want to stay?” Sylvia said, a trifle surprised though maybe she shouldn’t have been. 

“I owe that little guy my life, man,” Jeff replied, lowering his hand. “Anyway, I’m not really cut out for all this violence.”

Given that he had immense physic powers and the ability to move huge objects with his mind, Sylvia had to disagree – Jeff would be the most powerful fighter on their team. But only, of course, if he fought. And with his pacifism, he probably wouldn’t.

“You know, that’s a good idea,” Sylvia realized. Despite his powers, he wasn’t likely to be very helpful in battle. If it came to defending and protecting Wander, though, he’d be much more inclined to show force. More importantly, if Wander tried to leave, Jeff could probably mentally immobilize him until the battle was finished.

“Then you stay with Wander,” Sylvia decided. “Everyone else gather what weapons you can. Starbella and Ripov, you can get your ships ready. Let’s take her down.”

As the residents prepared, Sylvia turned away, her heart uncertain. Was she really ready to back to the ship? Was she ready to kill someone? It was Dominator, sure, and Sylvia had nothing but hatred for the villain. But the act of actually killing someone… that wasn’t something she had ever done, not even in her own villainous days. 

“Keep it together,” she told herself firmly. This wasn’t the time for last minute doubts. 

Instead, while the others gathered together whatever makeshift weapons they could find, Sylvia tracked down Jeff. She found the ex-villain kneeling beside several ceramic bowls and a pile of colorful flowers.

“Oh heya Sylvia!” he waved good-naturedly.

Sylvia’s brow furrowed. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m mashing up ringleberry flowers. They make the best paints, man. I thought Tumbleweed and I would paint while you’re gone. Gotta keep his mind off this heavy stuff, yanno?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Sylvia admitted; if they were painting, maybe Wander wouldn’t be as strung-out, and Jeff would always be right there to keep an eye on him. 

“Before I turned all evil and stuff, I’d paint to get out the mess in my head, man. So I thought, hey, maybe the lil’ orange guy could do with that too!”

“Yeah. Look, I have something to ask you.”

“Sure thing Sylvia! What’s bouncing around in your noggin?”

Sylvia rubbed her arm. “It’s Wander. I know he’s gonna try to follow us to Dominator’s ship, and when he wants to do something – well, it’s hard to stop him.”

Jeff nodded, “man, I know how true that is.”

“That’s why you need to _make sure_ he doesn’t follow us, do you understand?”

Jeff raised paint-splattered hands defensively. “Whoa man, don’t you worry – I don’t know what Dominator did to him, but that little guy has got to stay fa-ar away from her.”

Sylvia sagged in relief – she’d been worried that Jeff would be bent on saving Dominator, or thinking that Wander could save her. “Grop, am I glad you understand. We shouldn’t be gone more than a day. You’ve _got_ to watch Wander, every second of that. I know he doesn’t have any orbble juice but who knows what else he might try if it means trying to save us.”

Jeff saluted. “I’ll look after him. It’s the least I can do. And you guys? Man, you focus on taking her out. We gotta make this galaxy a place of peace again.”

 

 

They took off at dusk – Sylvia went with Beeza, piloting Jeff’s ship (which he had happily volunteered for the cause). In the viewports, the Secret Planet got smaller and smaller, as the vastness of space swallowed them up. Starbella and Ripov flanked the tail of Jeff’s ship. 

Despite the massive number of people on board, there wasn’t much talking. Tension ran like wildfire among them – they sat silently side by side, fiddling with the weapons that most had little experience with, and deep anxiety could be read on every face. 

Sylvia didn’t blame them. She certainly wasn’t immune to the doubt and nervousness plaguing the others – again and again she wondered if this was the right choice, going after Dominator after so little planning. She tried to assure herself that it was – if they didn’t attack now, it would only give Lord Dominator the opportunity to attack them. 

But would Wander be okay? Sylvia repeatedly found herself looking through the windshields, in case a small wanderer came ambling up in an orbble bubble. 

Her worried antics quickly got on Beeza’s nerves; “If her ship is anywhere nearby, the radars will pick it up, and I’ll let you know immediately,” she said firmly.

“Sorry.” Sylvia sidled away. But not five minutes later, she circled back to the control deck.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I see anything,” Beeza reminded her. 

Then five minutes again, and ten minutes, and half an hour – 

Finally, Beeza let out a soft, “oh!” and Sylvia tripped over herself in her haste to check the radars.

“What is it? Is it Wander?” 

Beeza cast her a sideways glance. “No, it’s Dominator’s ship. We’ll be ready to board in about twenty-five minutes… if her lasers don’t get us first.” 

“Oh, right.” Dread deepened in her heart as they neared the hulking black mass in space - as they approached, its spiky ominous shape became obviously identifiable as Dominator’s ship. It did not, however, move at all. It sat still and silent, enormous and seemingly impenetrable. Was Dominator not going to attack? 

Their own vessels steadily approached, closer, closer, closer, and still no hostile fire.

 _Maybe she’s injured,_ Sylvia thought, _or maybe she doesn’t even notice us yet._ A zing of exhilaration shot through her. The first stage of this plan was already going better than expected. 

“We’ll take the left flank,” Sylvia instructed. “Ripov and Starbella can take the right and back.” 

Beeza conveyed this over the intercom, and the three ships separated. The next few minutes were eerily quiet, as they drifted into place around Dominator’s ship, like a swarm of bugs gathering to a host. 

“Move in close,” Sylvia whispered. Dominator’s ship loomed larger and larger, like a giant black canvas engulfing them. 

Goosebumps prickled along Sylvia’s arms. Her heart thudded hard.

“The walls can be broken though,” she reminded. “With a solid shot, we can get in…” Beeza reported the same over the intercom. 

Finally, they stopped, their entire windshield obscured by solid plates of black rock. 

Sylvia swallowed. 

“Ready when you are,” Beeza said.

“Wait.” Sylvia turned to Beeza. “Will you stay back, once the fighting starts? Make sure that if Wander turns up, he can’t follow us.”

Beeza nodded once, firmly. 

Here went nothing. “Then fire.”

The wall blasted open from their lasers; lava splattered and sizzled on the hull of Jeff’s ship. Before the damage could repair itself, they shot through the makeshift opening, and into the dim lava halls that Sylvia couldn’t wait to see the last of. 

Immediately the wings on Jeff’s ship clipped the walls and Beeza guided the vessel to a skidding halt. With Sylvia in the lead, the rebels began swarming out.

Frederick the space worm let out a shrieking battle cry, and made the first blow by diving into the floor and shredding the ship’s frame

Within seconds, the bots were upon them – they rolled and flew and ran towards the rebels, but for the first time, they didn’t set fear in Sylvia’s heart. She had a lot more to worry about than these bots.

Resolve thick, she leapt at the front of the line and met them fist for lava blast, while friends and fighters from across the entire galaxy rallied behind her. 

Sylvia had already fought these bots tooth and nail two days ago, and she’d never been less scared. Hah, the bots facing them weren’t even at their full power! As she put her fist through their hulls she couldn’t help but notice that most were already damaged, with vicious tears in their hulls and lava oozing from shattered eyepieces. 

Clearly Dominator hadn’t had time (or maybe she lacked the resources) to build new bots. All this just served to prove that Lord Dominator wasn’t some undefeatable monster. She was very mortal and she was about to get comeuppance for everything she had done. 

A strangled cry burst from Sylvia’s left, and Neckbeard went down – furiously, Sylvia plunged her fist through the bot that had done it. Not a second later, Frederick burst up through the floor and swallowed another bot whole.

It was chaos. Metal shrapnel and bot parts flew. Frederick was arguably doing the most damage, considering that he could shred through the walls and floor like paper, and he could swallow up a seemingly endless number of bots. But everybody fought, and everybody impacted the fight: from the corner of her eye, Sylvia glimpsed Ripov leap onto a bot and break through its eyepiece to tear out the wires within it. The Mole People swarmed another bot, and overwhelmed it with sheer numbers, while Trudi and her clones mowed down a flock of scout-bots. 

“We’ve got you covered, Wander,” Sylvia said under her breath, triumph thrumming in her blood.

Invigorated, they broke through a line of Dombots and nearly crashed right into another third of their total party, lead by Ripov. 

“We saw the other group,” Ripov reported, “they were struggling against some big bots. Half our group split to help them.”

Sylvia nodded in understanding. “We’ve still got big enough numbers to take her on.”

Ripov shot her a rebellious grin. “Well? You ready to bring her down a notch?”

“Am I ever!” As they closed the distance to the control deck, Sylvia’s dread and anticipation both mounted. _This_ was the real challenge. 

“Here we go,” she muttered. A half glance to her side met her with Ripov’s determined glare.

“Let’s do this.”

“Three…. Two…. ONE!” Sylvia threw herself bodily at the wall and burst through in a spray of gelatinous lava. Immediately she had her fists at the ready, her entire body prepared for battle – what was likely to be the biggest battle of her life.

She was met with silence.

The soft humming of the battleship. Then the footsteps of others gathering behind her. 

Sylvia stepped into the room, heart thudding in her ribs, eyes raking every corner.

The room seemed to be… empty. Empty and cavernous. Something sat funny in her stomach.

“Where is she?” Ripov whispered.

“Is she hiding?” Destructor asked.

It wasn’t like Dominator to hide. But if she wanted to fight, she would have either been here, or on the front lines with the bots. So… Where…?

Sylvia tread deeper into the room. Stairs to her left led up to the controls and the windshield, and Sylvia tentatively followed these up. This is where they had first met Dominator, roughly a year ago, when Wander had been so bent on giving her a fruit basket and becoming her friend…

Sylvia shook her head. No Dombots here, and no Dominator. She was about to turn away when a video feed on the screens flickered to life, rising up ten feet above Sylvia’s head. 

A giant, projected version of Lord Dominator loomed, her intimidating demeanor hardly diminished by the numerous bruises and cuts that littered her skin. 

“Hi losers,” said the video feed. She fluttered her fingers and grinned sardonically. “If you’re hearing this, it means you stepped into my control deck and triggered this message. So welcome – really, I just love when stupid little lightning freaks and Zbornaks break onto my ship to try to destroy ME.”

It took too long for Sylvia to notice the quiet _beep…. beep… beep_ that had began the moment the video feed began.

“So,” the recording of Dominator said, inspecting her nails. “Seems like you guys aren’t _entirely_ worthless. But unfortunately for you, I’m not home right now.” 

It took Sylvia even longer to process what the beeping might be. 

“See, I had a little bot follow you, and it turns out you nerds have been hiding away from me all this time! I thought you were hiding on a ship, or some lame comet, but noo, you found yourselves an entire-“

_Beep…. Beep…._

“Bomb!” Sylvia yelled the moment she realized; Frederick, Ripov, and the others looked at her in puzzlement, “it’s a bomb, the ship – the ship is – GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!”

Ripov moved instantly; others stared as if unable to comprehend. 

There wasn’t time to deliberate. Sylvia grabbed those nearest to her, slung them onto her back, and shot out of the ship, screaming the entire way to evacuate. She leapt into space and shoved her passengers off none too gently – but this wasn’t the time for gentleness. 

Immediately she wheeled around – _Wander would do it_ – and moved to save more people. Before she could, she went blind. 

The stars, the ship, space – all of it drowned in a canvas of white. She couldn’t hear anything but a faint, distant whine. She couldn’t feel anything. There was nothing, no up, no down, just infinite white blankness.

Sound returned with a ripping roar; sight with flaring reds and oranges and blacks. 

When her mind orientated itself, she was staring upside down at the massive burning shell that was once Lord Dominator’s ship. Huge pieces of rock and metal floated meaninglessly, like planets frozen in orbit around a fiery sun. 

At first, she didn’t feel anything. She only stared, disbelieving what had just happened. 

Then anguish. Quickly counting the survivors, floating shocked bodies with thousand-mile stares. 

_See I had a little bot follow you_

Rushing from person to person, trying to find soothing words and instructions when she herself felt more lost than ever. How many dead? Counting the survivors again, hoping the number would be higher. 

_I had a little bot follow you_

Then risking a dive into the fractured, ruined ship, and crawling through ruptured halls and chambers to dig out anyone still alive. 

_had a little bot follow you, and it turns out you nerds have been hiding away from me all this time_

It wasn’t until she had exhausted every last wrecked corner of the ship, and dragged out every last breathing body, that she fully grasped the implications. 

She whispered in horror, “ _Wander._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I Halberd'ed Dominator's ship. I miss it already.


	6. Chapter 6

“Huh. Boring.”

Three glistening red-spattered icicles jutted four inches out of Jeff’s chest. 

“Gotta say, I expected more from someone that goes by the name of _Major Threat._ ”

A wet gurgle bubbled from Jeff’s throat. 

“Guess that just goes to show, doesn’t it? Even the best in this galaxy are nothing more than weak saps.” The icicles were yanked out of his chest, and his body collapsed with a sickening noise.

“Ngh.” Wander’s back slicked to the wall. “I, nn – _J-Jeff-_ “

She stepped over his corpse, hips swaying. “Jeff? Who the Grop are you talking about?”

She didn’t know. She didn’t even know. “Th-thuh h-he- wuh-wasn’t ah-” Whatever he was trying to explain quickly fled as she approached. “D-Dom, nnno, please-“ His feet stumbled over each other to back away.

“Oh, I get it. You made him a dopey useless good guy, didn’t you? And he got a lame name to go with it!” 

“Dom, please-“ 

“You know, that’s so ironic. Because if he had stayed a villain, then he probably wouldn’t be dead now.”

“Please, s-stop-“

“For someone who tries to be good, you sure do hurt a lot of people around you.” Her arm rose towards him, clawed fingers elongating with lava.

“Don’t!” a shriek ripped from his throat; he bolted for the shack exit.

He didn’t make it even three strides before ropes of lava snaked around both legs and sent him crashing to the floor. The heat against his flesh triggered electric panic to jump along his skin, and he convulsed while the lava wound up his hips, across his chest and arms, and around his throat. 

“You’re so much more afraid than I remember you,” she said, her voice closer now, and his lips parted in a silent cry. 

He couldn’t move, couldn’t fight – 

“Aw,” she made a soft noise that, coming from any other person, would be sympathetic or pitying. “I missed seeing you like this.” 

“Puh-please lemme go, Domi, please, l-lemme go-“

The lava lifted him from the floor and then he was face to face with Lord Dominator’s blood-red eyes. They were close, too close, and his gaze flicked frantically to the wicked curve of her lips. 

“What a rush, am I right?” she was saying. “Gotta love destroying planets, but there’s this special feeling for getting up close and personal as you tear away everything that a person cares about.” 

He let out a long, pained keen, and she laughed. “Like this dumb little planet you guys have been hiding out on. Oh man, I can’t wait to destroy it.”

“ _N-no!”_ From the corner of his eyes, he could still see Jeff’s body. 

“I mean, wow, I knew you guys were hiding somewhere, but I thought it was on a ship, or in another galaxy – not on an entire planet – hah! If I had known….” Wistful longing twined into her voice, “forcing you to watch as I picked off your friends, one by one….” 

“Nnoo, Dom-“ The terror was so thick, like static screeching in his head.

“And then just _k-pkchhh!_ destroy the entire planet! Man, can you imagine!”

Tears freely spilled from his eyes, and he couldn’t help the wet whimpering hiccups that he was sure were disgusting and ugly to Dominator. 

“But you,” she said, suddenly softer, “I won’t kill you.”

A gentle touch to his cheek had him flinching away. She seized his fur and forced him to look at her. “I had some time to think about things while you were gallivanting around on this planet. And at first I was all like, _rawr, confliction, emotion,_ because it was _weird_ to think about _liking_ someone. But you know, I’ve run around four galaxies by myself, and maybe it _is_ starting to get a little old. I thought, maybe that’s why I was sticking around this one for so long. The thing I’m missing-“ she jabbed his chest “is a little twerp like you, to cry over every pathetic planet I destroy.”

“I-I don’t wanna- please don’t, I wan’ Jeff t’be’ok, and Syl t’look after me an’ th’galaxy t’be the way it was, please-don’t-make-me-“

“I can’t even understand half of what you’re saying through your blubbering.” Dominator rolled her eyes. “Whatever, we should get this show on the road. There’s just one thing I need to do before we go.”

He dreaded to think what she wanted.

“You see this?”

She waved her arm purposefully in front of his eyes. Her glove was shredded, the forearm beneath it savagely torn and marred by a series of thin red welts. It wasn’t the only injury she bore, not by far, but Wander immediately knew the significance: it was the only injury _he_ had inflicted. It occurred to him that he wasn’t sorry. That if his arms weren’t bound up now, if he weren’t so scared, he’d wish that he could do worse. 

“See, it’s funny – I never knew you had claws.”

A soft whimper. 

“How about you show them to me?” Determination flared in her blood-red eyes. The lava wrapped around him readjusted so that his arms were free, but his body was still clutched tight.

“D-Dom-“

“Show. Me.”

He wanted to be anywhere but here. Wanted to be anybody but himself. 

Dominator’s expression contorted. “You little rat! Show me your stupid claws, or I’ll – I’ll gouge out your eyes!” 

“’msorryI’msorry’msorry-“ He thrust out one shaking hand, and let his claws slip out – they were small ivory crooks just at the tips of each finger. He flinched hard when Dominator took his hand in hers. 

“Whoa, neat. Look at that.” Every touch had Wander convinced she was going to snap a bone.

“D-don’t,” he brokenly uttered.

“Hold still.”

“Hold st-?” 

Each finger of hers bloomed into a separate lava string that encased each claw on his hand. 

Wander went very, very still. “N-no-“

Her other hand curled around his tiny wrist for leverage. “This might hurt.”

“DOMINATOR NO-“

She wrenched; the roots of his claws cracked then tore, and she ended with a fistful of bloody claws – all but one, which had twisted in the root without being fully removed, and now it pointed 40 degrees to the right. Wander’s jaw shot open – a hand slapped over his mouth and he screamed into Lord Dominator’s palm. 

“Oh, whoops, messed that one up a bit, didn’t I?” 

She grabbed the dangling claw and everything whited out for half a second. A vicious tug ripped it from its root, and he gasped, eyes rolling up. 

“What a stupid, dopey expression, hah!”

“Nnngh.” Her red eyes blazed in his vision. 

“Now come on, be a good little pet. I’ve still got one hand to go, and we need to get outta here. Show me your other claws.”

He could feel blood wetting the tips of his fingers, and he could feel pain starting at his wrist and coiling up his arm but he couldn’t feel his hand, not at all. That seemed so bizarre and so impossible because she hadn’t done anything to his wrist or arm, that Wander let out a breathy sound close to a laugh.

“Hello? Are you listening? You got four more of these I need to remove, Wander.”

His mouth released a series of gurgling noises that, under any other circumstances, he would have been humiliated to hear. She was looking angrier and angrier, and he began to hyperventilate. 

“Don’t make me impatient…”

She was going to kill him. He’d never been so convinced of anything in his life.

“I’m gonna give you three seconds to show me those claws, Wander. Three….”

Maybe he’d see Jeff in the afterlife.

“Two….”

Finally he wouldn’t be hurt anymore.

“One.”

He prayed that Sylvia would move on to live a happy life without him. 

The lava dropped him, and he hit the floor hard enough to knock all the air from his lungs. The few seconds he spent heaving for breath were all Dominator needed to settle heavily over him. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”

He felt her splay out his fingers against the floor; dizzily he gazed at the huge knife fashioned from lava rock as she reared it above her head. Suddenly, he wasn’t okay with death – he was very very much not okay with it, and he needed to get out now - the knife slammed down. His ears rang. Everything sucked out of existence, went dark and warm and there was blissful nothingness.

Reality popped back in with someone screaming.

“Oops,” Dominator said.

It occurred to him that he was the one screaming. 

“Chopped a liiiittle more off than I intended.”

His throat went dry and the scream turned to a hoarse rattle. 

“Grop, that looks gross. You’re bleeding everywhere, hold on-“

He rolled onto his side, vision swimming. Drool dribbled from his parted, panting lips. He had to get out. Had to get away. His palm came down on the floor, and stubby fingers seared with a pain that shot up his arm and coiled in his shoulder.

“Hold still-“ 

He yelped out when she took his hand. She was wrapping something around it – panic choked him. _Lava! she’s going to burn my hands, she’s –_

“Grop, would you stop squirming!” A sharp slap across his cheek; he cried out.

Her hands descended again, and he wildly tried to push her off. 

“Ugh, you’re getting blood everywhere, stop it-“

She reached again; this time Wander caught sight of the white cloth she held and confusion dismayed him. What did she plan to do - was she going to strangle him with it? She wrestled down his arm and –

Oh. 

He saw his fingers, three-fourths the length they were supposed to be, and the sight transfixed him long enough for Dominator to hastily wind the bandages around them. He laid limply, heart thudding in his chest. She’d… she’d cut off the tips of his fingers. Instinctively, he reached to pull off the bandages – Dominator growled and stopped him, forcing a bandage around his other, less mutilated hand. 

“There,” she snapped, “now will you stop whining?” 

His cheeks felt cold, and when he touched them, it wetted the tip of a bandage and sent fresh spikes of pain down his arm. Crying. Of course. He’d forgotten he was doing that. Dominator’s face scrunched up in a confused expression – she looked extra tall, straddling him like this. Wander’s eyes slid like molasses to the side. Jeff. He was right by Jeff. Wander twisted around to throw up, and Dominator scrambled off him. 

“Eeww, why do you always do that?”

His mouth tasted horrible. His fingers were beyond pain. This was all too much, way too much. Without any conscious decision, his spine buckled and he curled on the floor to cry.

When Dominator scooped him up, he didn’t protest. He wasn’t sure he was even capable of protesting. When she hugged him to her chest, and stepped from the shack, he didn’t fight back. Instead, his arms loosely wound around her neck, and he cried into her shoulder. 

If he tried hard enough, he could imagine the hand cradling his back was Sylvia’s.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read the tags. Don't touch this with a ten foot pole unless you're ready. trigger warnings everywhere

Wander slid hazily in and out consciousness, never quite sure when he was fully awake or fully asleep. The moon above bathed the forest in muted glow, and shadows shifted and moved just out of sight. Sometimes he was being carried by Dominator and sometimes by Sylvia. 

“It’s great to have ya back, partner,” Sylvia told him once, and Wander had been so grateful that he’d squeezed Sylvia in the tightest, friendliest hug, letting her know just how much he had missed her and how desperately he needed her company.

It was Dominator that complained and wrestled his arms away from her neck.

Another time, Sylvia gathered Wander to her chest, and said “we did it!” relief bright in her eyes, “we saved the galaxy, Wander!”

“We sure did,” Wander mumbled.

Dominator growled, _“did what?”_ and then Wander had to remember that they hadn’t done anything, least of all save the galaxy.

He wasn’t coherent enough to notice the passage of time, and neither did he notice that Lord Dominator began staggering rather than walking. He did notice – and was promptly jolted back to reality – when she finally threw him down against the trunk of a huge tree, and slumped next to him, closing her eyes.

The sky was a dark expanse overhead. Wander had no idea where he was, and no idea where Sylvia was. He just knew he was alone with Dominator, just as he had been many times aboard her ship. And that meant nothing good.

He wondered the odds of being able to sneak away, but the very thought paralyzed him. Right now she wasn’t hurting him. If he tried to escape, he had no doubt that she would. 

“This is so lame,” Lord Dominator groaned, throwing a hand over her face, and Wander flinched from the sound of her voice. 

His eyes flitted, just to watch out in case she decided to reach for him – and finally, he noticed what he had not before: violent purplish bruising scrawled up her entire left side, across her belly, and up her ribs, disappearing beneath her shirt. The source of injuries was clear – the three round black-red holes gouged into her side from Commander Peeper’s blaster.

Of course. Even someone like Dominator couldn’t recover from injuries that bad in such a short period of time. Contrarily, this only made Wander more afraid. After all, wounded animals were much more likely to lash out.

“Like, I gotta rebuild my entire ship, and now we’re stuck on this stupid rock with stupid plants, and stupid – ugh!” 

She didn’t have her ship anymore?

“I hope the explosion at least killed off some of your friends.”

Oh. It clicked, and shudders started afresh. He hadn’t done anything. He’d let them go to Dominator’s ship. He knew how dangerous she was – he knew that much better than anyone else, and he’d let them go anyway…

“S-Sylvia,” Wander choked out.

“Grop, don’t start now. I don’t want to hear your whining. You were sniffing for hours already.”

Wander bit his lip. Sylvia had to still be alive... he would have felt it if she weren’t, right? He would know? Oh no… but if she was still alive, she’d try to follow them…. Wander willed with all his might that Sylvia would just leave the galaxy. Find a different friend. Be happy and most of all – _be very far away_. 

As for the others, though…. Guilt weighed heavily on him. 

“And after all this there’s still only one lousy planet to destroy…” Dominator muttered. “Whatever. I guess we can move on to the next galaxy and then everything will be fine again.”

Another galaxy. She wanted to do this all over again. But what could he do to stop her….

“Hey, are you paying any attention? Don’t you want to change me for the better? Aren’t you going to go on some lame spiel about how I’m just misunderstood and need the power of love and friendship?” she said the last bit with an exaggerated twang. 

He wished he would. He wished he still believed she could be good. He had to believe it for her, because she wouldn’t. “Y-Y’killed a lot of people,” Wander tried. Jeff was at the forefront of his mind, but there were others, he knew. Many others. 

“Oh what, and – and that stupid Hater never did? Actually, scratch that, he would be the kind of dope to never even kill a single person. Probably cries over dead insects.” She snorted. “Anyway, the point is, I thought you were all about that whole forgive and forget thing.”

“Gee,” Wander said softly, avoiding her intent gaze. He was supposed to be. 

“Don’t tell me I broke you.”

Wander struggled to remember how he kept faith through even the toughest villains. Trouble was, he hadn’t really struggled before. Being good meant embracing all the positive parts of life, the good healthful aspects of life that benefited both yourself and others. He’d always just known it was the best way to live, and likewise, his desire to show that to villains had never wavered. So why was Dominator different?

She was lonely, he knew that – lonely like many of the other villains he’d encountered. But… He met her gaze, and quavered beneath its emptiness. He wasn’t sure there was anything at all inside her.

“I do want you t’be good,” Wander finally said. “Everyone’s happier when they’re good. When they start helpin’ other folks, they start helpin’ themselves.”

“That sounds more like your usual dorky self. C’mere.” 

Wander didn’t want to get any closer. In fact, he really really would feel more comfortable with more distance between them. “A-are y’gonna kill me?” 

“What? No. Why would I bother kidnapping you if I’m just going to kill you?” 

He had to admit that didn’t make much sense but also he was equally certain that Dominator would only want him closer to inflict pain.

“I said come here,” she repeated, a hard edge in her voice.

“Wh-why?” he dared to ask.

“Take a guess. What we were last doing before we were interrupted by your friends – which, by the way, was _rude_.”

Oh. Wander scrunched himself in a tinier ball. “I-I don’t really wanna do that, Domi….” 

“Wow, that’s funny,” she said, “I don’t remember asking you what _you_ wanted.” He may as well have said nothing at all. She grabbed him and deposited him onto her lap. Wander self-consciously tucked his wrist close to his chest. She wanted to kiss him. He could tell, with the way her eyes flicked down.

Something in him rallied, unearthing a tiny speck of willpower, “Dominator, this ain’t right! Y’don’t force people do this kinda stuff!”

“Oh wow, really? I never knew. I’m _so_ lucky to have you around to tell me these things.”

Desperation crawled in. “D-don’t you want someone t’love you? T’kiss you ‘cause they care about you, and they want th’best for you?”

“Hmmm, let see…. No. Sounds like a lot of work.” She leaned in – Wander yipped and held her shoulders back. 

“B-But it’s a real special feelin’, Domi. It’s like butterflies filling up all your guttyworks, an’ you’re light as air, and like nothin’ can ever go wrong.”

“Oh, ouch, you’re _reeeeally_ not selling it. The only ‘Special Feeling’ I need is that nice rush when I destroy a planet and all its stupid inhabitants. Oh, and that weird feeling I get from kissing you. Butterflies, is that what you said?”

"N-no-" She pressed their lips together, and Wander froze in place. Her mouth was hot against his, but slow, inquisitive. Did she expect him to respond? Did she want him to pretend to like it? No… the answer was clear. It didn’t matter to her if he liked it or not. She probably preferred if he didn’t.

Wander squeezed his eyes shut, while her fingers wound through his fur, up his back, up his neck, cupping his head. Exploring. Learning. 

Should he try to fight? Try to run? Ultimately, he did neither. He held stock still, and let her examine him. He felt weird, a distinctly _bad_ weird, much like the skin and fur he wore weren’t actually his own – like no part of his body, not even his bones, were his. How could they be, when she could so easily do whatever she liked to him? When he had no say? When she made him feel so detached and uncomfortable? 

A tongue touched his lips: Wander clenched his mouth shut firmly. Maybe this one thing, he could prevent. Protect. Keep as his own. 

“Open your mouth,” she ordered.

He shook his head. If he could have at least one bit of resistance…

She robbed his choice by peeling back his lips and slithering her tongue through the gap from his missing teeth. Wander shuddered as she licked at his tongue, explored the roof of his mouth and the inside of his teeth. 

Something else then, he thought. There must be something else to cling to. Something else he could call his own, something he could protect; he couldn’t be entirely helpless…. 

But tears pricked at his eyes, and despair lapped at his consciousness.

Wander screwed his eyes shut and desperately imagined that he was a million miles away. That they had defeated Dominator, and that the galaxy was recovering, growing, flourishing (Dominator’s hand trailed up and down his back) that he was sitting with Sylvia on some beautiful beach, chatting about nothing at all, and planning their next adventure (she bit his lip) and maybe even Hater would be there, and Commander Peepers, because maybe everyone was alive and well, and none of the bad stuff in these past few weeks had happened (she paused).

Trembling, Wander opened his eyes. 

She licked blood from her lips; her eyes were dark and curious. But also hesitant. It occurred to Wander that she wasn’t sure exactly what was supposed to come next. 

Wander tried twice to speak, and both times failed. On the third try, he uttered in a hoarse whisper, “G-guess w-we ought’a sleep now, r-right? G-gosh, I’m awful tired-”

Her hand cupped between his legs.

“Euuugh!” Wander shot backward and fell ungracefully off Dominator’s lap.

“Ow!” She half curled, clutching her wounded side, “you kicked me, you little twerp!”

“I-I didn’t mean t’please’msorry-“

“ _Grop._ ” She gritted her teeth and stayed curled up. “Your stupid friends and their guns, ugh – I hope your little pipsqueak commander died.”

That stung like a shot through his own chest. Slowly, he sat up from the dirt. Even curled up and in pain, Dominator seemed so… so monstrous. So horrifying. So capable of terrible things. 

“Way to ruin the mood,” she growled at him. 

Wander had a second to wonder if this meant he was in the clear, if this meant he could sleep tonight without anything worse befalling him. That second didn’t last long enough. 

A hand slammed into him and pinned him to the ground; coils of lava snatched his wrists and ankles and forced him into an open, spread-eagled position. 

Nursing her left side, Dominator knelt beside him.

“So how does this work?” she asked, but she didn’t seem to be directing the question to him.

“H-how does what work?” he tried.

A hand shoved roughly between his legs, and he let out a mortified yowl. His thighs instinctively tried to close, to block out the intrusion, but his bindings held tight enough to dig into his ankles.

“J-jus’ let me go,” it was hard to talk through what probably qualified as hyperventilating, “jus’ let me go, Dom, please, I don’t wanna do this, I don’t – ghk-“ 

“How do you normally get it to work? Is it just, you rub and then magic?” 

“Please,” he whimpered, tears streaking down the sides of his face. 

“It’s pretty small, isn’t it?” Her motions were experimental – ill-practiced and much too rough, and it _hurt._ His thighs twitched as if to close, and yet again the restraints stopped him. 

She wasn’t even looking at him. She was looking between his legs, studying him like an object.

Wander’s cheeks scrawled with red, and he hid as much of his face as he could against the ground. “S-stop Domi…” he flinched away from her hand and she got impatient – “a-ah, th-that hurts, stop – stop, STOP!” 

He gasped in relief when she paused. “It hurts?”

He nodded weakly.

She hesitated, expression thoughtful. “Then _you_ do it.”

“H-huh?”

One lava cuff melted away from his wrist, leaving his right arm free. 

“You do it. Get yourself ready, however you normally do.”

Nothing about this was normal. Nothing about this could possibly be normal, could possibly feel okay. 

“You do it, or I’ll keep doing what I’m doing until I figure it out,” she growled.

Dominator would get what she wanted one way or another, wouldn’t she? There wasn’t any fighting her. There wasn’t any stopping her. He had never felt so hopeless in his entire life. But if he did what she asked now… maybe he could speed up the whole process. Get it over with sooner. 

Oh grop, he really wished she wasn’t watching. 

He shifted his hand between his legs – it was his right arm she had freed, which was good for the fact he had the most mobility with that hand – it’s the one she had ripped the claws out of, rather than chopping the tips of his fingers off. 

Unfortunately, it was still wrapped in bandages, and most of his hand was swollen anyway. But if he didn’t listen, she’d do worse. The motions themselves were familiar – something he had always felt comfortable doing, with those that were just as happy and willing to do it with him. Now it felt humiliating and degrading, working himself beneath her cynical gaze like some machine performing a function. Worse, the movement sent fresh pain shooting through his hand whenever the bandages brushed skin.

She watched with a bored detachment. “What’s taking so long?” 

“I’m j-just scared,” Wander let out hysterical noise that might have been something close to a laugh. He could hardly believe this was actually happening.

"Well, stop being so scared."

He tried, really tried, but he couldn't ever get turned on a situation like this... “This ain’t like how I normally go about it,” he uttered, half a statement, half a plea.

“How do you do it normally?” 

“Well, normally I got another friend t’help me out, and –“

“I tried to help you, but you’re too sensitive.”

“Normally it’s all caring-like, y’know, like th’care about me, an’ I care about them.”

“Oh.” It was clear the idea both annoyed and confused her. “Yeah. Like, boring coupley stuff. The whole _oh, I love you so much, want to be with you forever~_ blah blah blah.”

“Well, it ain’t exactly like that, because it ain’t jus’ about the words – when you really like bein’-“

“Okay, less talking more moving,” Dominator waved her hand impatiently. “I didn’t tell you to stop.”

Wander flinched. “I can’t do it like this.” He’d always been open about liking people, and about what felt good for his body. But he didn’t like this at all, and none of it felt good. “Domi, I’m still scared-“

“Well close your eyes. Get less scared. Think about something else.”

He bit his lip and closed his eyes. It was difficult to ease his mind away from the pain of reality and slip into the realm of fantasy. He waded past more recent memories and sought older ones, very old – memories of past relationships, some short and light-hearted, some long and fruitful, all healthy and bucolic fun. 

Wander sighed softly. He could even imagine that the lava binding him was soft cloth, tying him up to spice things up a bit. He’d certainly had some wild partners who loved to be so naughty. Their antics added a special spark to things, an extra shock of saucy fun. Wander’s toes twitched, a smile teased at his lips. Gosh, he could remember one such instance, dozens of years ago….

They’d knotted him up all fancy-like with ribbon and he’d felt so risqué. And they’d taken him so passionately, and so hotly, with just the best mix of feral and kind energy -

A noise, somewhere between revulsion and curiosity, interrupted his reverie. 

“Look, you’re not totally broken!” she crowed, and his illusion was thoroughly shattered. 

He wanted to die. He didn’t want to be here anymore. 

“Ew, it’s so _pink_.” She touched him there again. He let out an ugly, choked sob. Somewhere else. Anywhere else. _Please._

He heard fabric sliding over skin. Felt her weight settle over his hips. When he dared to look, she was still wearing her skirt and shirt, but concealed beneath the black fabric, his privates pressed at something warm and wet. 

Panic set in again, his stomach churned, his restraints snagged as he thrashed.

“How do you-“ 

“S-s-stop,” he pleaded. 

“Is it in?”

“Ngh.” He considered lying and saying yes. The option to do so fled as she reached a hand between her legs and checked. 

“Grop.” She held him firmly in place.

“Nononono-“ She sank down, fully sheathing him. Her insides were too hot, painfully hot. 

“S-stop, it – it hurts-“ His one free hand pushed uselessly at her thigh.

“ _Weird,_ ” Dominator said. “I can barely feel you. Jeez, how dumb is that?”

Wander could feel her. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t get her off, and his most sensitive and vulnerable area was trapped inside her. He couldn’t close himself off, couldn’t push her away – the helplessness could have drowned him. 

Her hands settled on either side of his head, her eyes were a terrifying blood red. He felt very much like prey trapped by a predator. 

"That's really underwhelming," she said. Expression thoughtful, she rolled her hips in a slow, circular motion. "Is it - is it supposed to _do_ more?" She rocked herself on his lap, but her mouth was turning into a puzzled frown.

"Hnk." Despite the heat, the sensations sent little unwelcome sparks of pleasure-pain up his spine. But it was nothing like any of his past experiences. The entire thing was riddled with and ruined by horror, and even the pleasure felt too sharp, too wrong.

The unsatisfied twist to her lips deepened, and Wander’s horror only grew. If she wasn’t pleased, if he didn’t do good enough….

“What the Grop,” she muttered. Her hand scooped his lower back and she used this leverage to thrust him against her: he was helpless to stop it and had no choice to be used as a toy. Tears freely fell from the corners of his eyes, choked cries forced from his lips with every thrust. 

This treatment continued for perhaps a minute more before she let out a mix between a growl and a sigh, and let his body slump back to the ground.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded.

“Wh-whu?” 

“Is it because you're so small or….” She struggled to conjure reasons why Wander might be insufficient, and he wished more than anything in the world that he could sink into the ground and vanish from existence.

“I-I’m sorry,” he choked past tears. 

“Grop, you’re too stupid to do even this right…”

“’msorry, Domi, ‘msorry, please, please stop, d-don’t hurt me-“

“Aww,” she cooed. “I wasn’t going to, but thanks for the idea.” She back-handed his face so hard that his cheek struck the dirt. Air snagged hard in his lungs; blood bubbled from his mouth. 

Her hips jolted. O-oh. She understood the same time he did, and laughed. "Ohh, I should have started with this! Hurting you is like, my third favorite thing to do. I can't believe I didn't toss that in before. Guess I just had this impression about doing it the same way everyone else does but - really, yawn, who needs that?" 

Desperation clenched in his chest. He prayed she would kill him. 

The second strike was harder. His skull bounced stupidly off the ground, and the world spun. This time she let out a soft, affectionate noise. 

“Maybe you aren’t too awful at this after all.” 

Wander quavered beneath the heady, excited tone in her voice. He wished she had never stumbled across the idea to kiss him. He wished she had never grown interested in him. He wished she had never come to this galaxy.

She forced fingers past his lips. He gagged, and at first, he thinks that's the worst of it - that's what she wanted to get out of it, him choking. He was, dreadfully, wrong. Her fingers hunted around until they found the holes where his teeth had once been. Whitehot licks of pain scrawled up his jaw, and his heart thudded like a rabbit's. 

"Uuhg-" he met her eyes, pleaded, _don't do it, don't -_

Her sharp claws mercilessly scoured through the holes. The agony ripped a scream from his lips, and it drowned out her ecstatic gasp. Blood bubbled back to his throat; he tasted copper and sulfur.

Breathlessly, she burrowed one claw into an oozing red toothless root, this time with a zealous, needy impatience. Deliriously, Wander imagined that nothing else existed but this moment – everything hurt, everything hurt and would always hurt, the pain wouldn’t ever end, there wasn’t anything outside of this, she would just always be here, always –

She yanked, and her nail ripped the barrier between two teeth holes.

Wander didn’t remember feeling it. 

The entire world blinked out, and when he next became aware of himself, some seconds must have passed, because she was kissing him again, licking his throbbing gums. One of her hands was shamelessly buried in her skirt, while the other was wrapped around Wander’s throat. He couldn’t actually breathe. Dizzily, he stared at the freckles lightly dusted across her cheeks. He should fight back, force her off, but his brain felt full of hot fluff, his limbs didn't cooperate, wouldn't move.

Time skipped again. 

He blinked. The night sky was frightening. All black, with no stars, and only one small moon. A breeze sighed through the tree branches, and he watched the leaves flutter. Pain radiated from his mouth so thickly that his entire skull throbbed, but no more tears would come to his eyes. His privates felt cold and slick. It was over. She... 

His head turned to the side, and there she was, half curled around him. Her eyes were closed, but not sleeping - no, she must have just finished. Her chest still heaved from the excitement and exertion. 

Her vermillion eyes half opened, and she smiled.

"Hey, dork," breathlessly, full of affection. "Kinda had to finish the job myself. You got all wilty there at the end. But hey, that was actually a lot of fun."

She was laying on her good side. Wander’s eyes trailed over the ugly bruising and the blaster wounds she bore. He imagined digging his fingers into those wounds, tearing at them, making _her_ scream. 

"Anybody home?" she waved a hand in front of his face. 

Wander thought about breaking each and every one of her perfectly good fingers.

She laughed, flopped onto her back with her skirt in a disarray. "Well, we should do that again sometime."


	8. Chapter 8

Again. She wanted to do that _again._ Not now, no, but… she would want it eventually. And he wouldn’t have any power to stop her. 

Wander rolled over onto his side and squeezed his thighs together. The taste of blood stuck like tacky to his tongue and mouth. Wetness clung to his privates, getting cold in the night air. He hated it. He felt dirty, used, vulnerable. But most of all, he felt exhausted. Like even the act of breathing was too much work. 

“Hey,” she suddenly said, and shifted behind him. “I was kinda selfish, you know?”

It sounded too good to be true, and sure enough, after a long yawn, Dominator continued, “I was just so focused on making myself feel good, and I totally neglected you. How about I fix that?” Fingers crept up his hip, reaching - 

“NO!” Wander kicked out wildly and half dove half fell a good foot away. 

Dominator burst out laughing. “Oh my Grop, relax. Wound up much?” 

Wander whimpered and watched her with terror, certain she would at any moment grab him and drag him back. Instead, she yawned wide and nestled her head comfortably on her arms. “Relax nerd, I was mostly kidding. Just funny to watch you jump.”

Several tense seconds passed, and her breathing slowed. Was she going to sleep? Wander’s eyes darted to the dark woods around them. If she fell asleep… if she was unaware….

One persimmon eye opened a sliver. “Don’t even think about running away. I found you, even on this planet. If you run, I’ll find you again, and I won’t be happy.”

Wander lowered his head, curling his arms and legs closer to his body. “Y-Yes Dom.”

 

 

He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep. In fact, he hadn’t had any intention of falling asleep. Nonetheless, his mind groggily dragged itself from sleep some time later. _You don’t want to be awake,_ his brain said. His body agreed. He felt exhausted to his very bones, like every inch of his body weighed a hundred pounds. Even his eyelids refused to open.

Then he heard a long yawn.

Lord Dominator. _Her._

She was moving, shifting behind him, maybe sitting up. He dared to open one eye a mere slit, though he didn’t glimpse her – she was behind him. The sky was still dark, the soil smelled richly of blood. They couldn’t have slept for more than a few hours. 

“Hey,” she said softly; he didn’t reply. As if pretending to be asleep would help his case any.

“Hey, nerd.” There was exhaustion in her voice, yes, but also… she was happy. After what she had done last night, she was _happy._ Wander felt sick to his stomach. 

“Come on,” she drawled, “I know you’re awake. You’re as tense as a board.”

“Go away,” he tried weakly.

She cooed. Shifted closer. His breath started coming short. Then he felt it – the subtlest little shift of the hair follicles at the back of his neck, the tiniest indication that Dominator was reaching to touch him. 

“DON’T!” Energy shot into his veins; he launched away from the touch, crashed into a tree trunk a foot away, and scrambled around to face her. 

She looked terrible. Her hair, clothes and skin had dirt stains, the blaster wounds on her side were swollen and purple, and the couple hours of sleep clearly hadn’t been enough. But her eyes… those were a bright sinister red. They looked alert and sparking with dangerous energy. “A little sensitive, are we? I was just going to pet you.”

He was going to get hurt. No matter what he did, this was going to end with him getting hurt because she wanted that, she always wanted that. Helpless tears rose to his eyes. “Don’t touch me,” he said shakily.

“Ouch. After we slept together and everything.” Dominator twirled a lock of her dirty hair. “That’s no way to make a lady feel good about herself.”

Anger twisted in his stomach. “Slept together?” he ground his teeth. “Dom, what y’did was _wrong!_ That wasn’t – it’s not - y-you aren’t s’pposed to force people!”

“Really? Gosh, I wish I had known that last night.”

“You knew it and y’did it anyway.” He clutched the bark behind his back as tight as he could – his mutilated fingers flared with protesting pain, but that was nothing new. He didn’t know what it was like to not be in pain at this point. “Dom, I thought even you would have limits. That there was… was some awful things y’wouldn’t do.”

“Gee, why would you think something dumb like that?”

“… y’don’t feel bad about it, do ya? Not even a little?”

“Nope!” she emphasized the ‘p’ with a pop. ““Honestly? I thought sex with you – or just in general – was gonna be super lame, but… that was _really_ fun. Who knew?” 

“And you’re not ever gonna be my friend,” Wander said, but it wasn’t really a question. 

Dominator tapped her lips thoughtfully. “Would you call it friends with benefits? Ooh, this is exciting! I haven’t ever had a friend before, much less one with benefits. How fun.” She gave a little excited wiggle, and Wander fully grasped the idea that she couldn’t be saved.

“We’re gonna stop you,” he growled out.

“Aw, are you? I really wonder how, because your little circle of friends is only getting smaller and smaller. I mean, if you couldn’t defeat me before, what hope do you really have now?” 

Wander swallowed hard. “You’re hurt now. Y’try to sound brave, and y’try not t’let it show, but we hurt you. We can defeat you.”

Her grin faltered. “Since when did you get so defiant?”

“That’s why you destroyed your ship, isn’t it? You wouldn’t have done that if you weren’t desperate, Dom – you wouldn’t have blown it up if y’thought y’could fight us!”

Any trace of a smile was gone from her face, and Wander’s racing heart frantically tried to remind him that provoking Dominator was a very very bad idea, but his mouth didn’t seem to want to listen. “We’re gonna bring you down, Dom, ‘cause the good always prevails. _Always._ An’ the galaxy’s gonna recover, an’ we’re all gonna be happy and together and havin’ a great time. It’ll be like you didn’t do anything, like you were never here! You aren’t gonna mean _anythin’_!”

There was silence. Silence enough for him to hear his heartbeat in his ears, and for panic to set in the way it should have several minutes ago. She didn’t move. She didn’t say anything. Her face was entirely devoid of expression.

Apologies started tumbling uncontrollably from his mouth, “’msorry, Dom, I shouldn’t’a said that, I didn’t mean it, really, that wasn’t polite – I’m so-“

She stood up sharply. Wander didn’t breathe. “Why’d you have to go and ruin a good morning like that?” she said softly. “I mean, all right, it wasn’t the best morning in the world. I slept on dirt for Grop’s sake, and my hair is disgusting – unlike you, I don’t sleep outside like a dirty hobo. Plus, it’s way too early to be awake and I’m hungry. So it wasn’t the greatest.”

She closed the distance between them and Wander writhed, whimpering out pleads and protests. He wanted to push her away, fight her off, but all his limbs had seemingly become noodles. She reached out and cradled his right hand, her thumb settling into his palm. With a definitive crack, she snapped his wrist. 

Words and screams both leapt from his chest, and she calmly talked over him, “Still, I was determined to make this a nice morning for the both of us. Start with a little banter, pet your gross filthy fur, and be on our merry way. Really, is that too much to ask?”

One hand grabbed his forearm; the other grabbed his hand. Gazing straight into his eyes, she began to twist the broken joint. There was this awful crunching sound, not one clean snap, but rather a closely gathered series of grinding pops. His spine shuddered and his eyes rolled.

“I want to make something clear,” she added, in a softer voice. “I’ve destroyed hundreds of planets, Wander. Billions of people. At least I wasn’t one of those lousy billions of nobodies that died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are the ones that meant nothing. Unsuspecting little citizens, doing nothing and going nowhere, until their planet got destroyed and nothing is left to remember them.”

With one final dismissive noise, she shoved him aside and stood up sharply. Wander immediately curled around his throbbing wrist, whimpering softly. Pain at least was familiar. The fear was still there, and the pain was sharp enough that it kept him down, but rage railed against his ribs. 

She couldn’t keep doing this. She couldn’t keep hurting him.

“Dangit,” Dominator said softly, and she really did sound remorseful, “Look what you made me do. I wasn’t even going to hurt you today.”

Wander’s eyes curved up to follow her as she stretched and yawned. “I’m not scared of ya, Dom,” he said; he wanted it to be true but knew it was a lie.

She snorted. “Just get up. I’m starving, and we need to get moving before your horse finds us.”

Wander tucked his chin to his chest. “Th’nlet’r.”

“What?”

He bit his lip. 

“What did you say?”

“Let her find us.”

Dominator fixed the most condescending and confused look upon him. “What is wrong with you?”

He wanted to burst into tears, but none would come. “I-I don’t know.” 

Her expression softened, but it was no less dangerous. “Aw, this is too much for you, isn’t it? It’s breaking your little brain.”

He averted his eyes.

“It’s okay. I’m not mad.” And she knelt down in front him; hands cradled his cheeks and he whined. “Honestly? You look kind of adorable like this. I mean, I could do without the whole defiant song and dance, but… there’s just something so broken about you.” 

Wander wasn’t surprised this time when she kissed him. He tried not to react, tried to focus on simple things like breathing, and most of all tried not to fathom that she might want to do what she had done last night. 

Then, she froze. For half a second, Wander didn’t understand why – was it to trip him up, to put him off guard, and then hurt him again? Then he heard it too – a very distant yell, barely carried over the wind, but completely unmistakable. _Sylvia_. That was Sylvia! She was looking for him! She was – not close, not exactly, but –

“SYL- mggh!” Dominator wrapped her hand around his mouth, her eyes a furious red. 

“Don’t even think about it!”

“Wander?” that distant voice warbled, and there wasn’t any question about who Wander was going to listen to.

A well-aimed kick straight for Dominator’s injured side freed him, and Wander writhed from her clutches, screaming at the top of his lungs, “SYLVIA SYLVIA HELP ME SYLV-hrk-“ 

Lava constricted around his mouth, scrawled over his face, snaked to wrap around his entire body. A scream of frustration rose up his throat but ended as nothing more than a muffled squawk.

“Well,” Dominator hissed grimly, “looks like we need to run.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE GO TO THE FIRST CHAPTER AND CHECK OUT THE FANTASTIC COVER THAT [RIVALPUNKS](http://rivalpunks.tumblr.com/) DREW FOR ME


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got hella distracted by other fandoms, and I'm not sure if/when I'll get into WOY again unfortunately. I sorta just wanted to wrap this up. The intended end of this story was this chapter and the next, except significantly expanded to be several chapters rather than just two. I have roughly summarized/condensed into two, which isn't ideal, but IMO done is better than perfect. So here we are, messy but wrapping up.

Zbornaks were fast. Wander was pretty sure that Sylvia was the fastest one, and he was equally certain that there was no way Dominator could ever outrun her. Which meant Wander just needed to make sure Sylvia knew which direction to go. Except he had lava wrapped around his mouth and it muffled any noise that could alert Sylvia.

“Grop, hold still!” Lord Dominator ran through the Secret Planet’s jungle-like terrain, but it was a staggering, frantic run. Her task was made more difficult by Wander, who kicked and squirmed like a feral animal, his mind flooded and wrought with the need for help, safety. If Sylvia didn’t find them now, if Dominator got off this planet…

He couldn’t think about it. None of his injuries mattered, none of the pain mattered – he needed to get free, and he needed to get Sylvia, now. If he didn’t, he was worse than dead.

“Stop… squirming…”

There was a crash in the forest, somewhere behind them, and Dominator veered sharply to the right. Her path brought them to a rocky ridge that overlooked a basin, the surface of which was hidden by more large-fronded trees.

Dominator gazed down the treacherous ridge as if considering a descent.

“Stop moving, or I’ll throw you over,” she growled to Wander.

Wander made an offended noise that he hoped properly conveyed that he’d rather her do that than keep him around to hurt him more. If the noise didn’t make it clear, then him doubling his efforts to free himself certainly did.

“Hold still, you stupid-“ she froze, maybe hearing something that Wander hadn’t, and without another second to consider, she leapt down the rocks. Wander’s heart jumped up in his throat because the drop was nearly 90 degrees, and every inch of it was littered with sharp loose rock.

She hissed as she skidded down the incline, one hand clutching Wander, while the other steadied her descent. Wander gripped her hand tight, wincing as she navigated the slope. Finally they reached the bottom of the basin, and Dominator landed on her feet hard.

Dominator exhaled, and Wander could feel her shaking. She swore quietly, and for a second, didn’t move. For the tiniest moment, Wander felt pity – then very swiftly, he started thrashing afresh.

Growling, she took off into the forest. “You know, things would have been so much easier if your horse would have died in the explosion.”

Wander beat her wrist furiously, but it seemed like he was little more than a toy for all the damage he was doing.

He was just grasping the idea that Dominator might escape, that all this might have been futile, when a blue blur shot from the trees.

Then it was chaos. Something slammed into Dominator. Wander went flying, then struck the dirt hard and rolled. The lava tab fell in pieces from his mouth, and he gasped. For several seconds, he had no clear idea of what had happened or what was happening.

When he righted himself, his eyes dizzily locked onto a sight that had him immediately struck by terror and hope: Sylvia was on top of Dominator, fists flailing.

“Get OFF me!” Dominator was snarling, and twisting like a snake beneath Sylvia. It was awful and primal, an animalistic fight that no sentient thing should ever be a part of. But Sylvia was furious. Wander could see it in her eyes, in every tense line of her body.

Wander trembled. She was angry because she was hurt. Hurt on his behalf.

Dominator wormed out from under Sylvia, scrambled towards Wander – but Sylvia grabbed her ankle and sent her to the ground. There was a brief, vicious squabble. Wander frantically looked left to right: should he call for help? Was there anything he could do?

There was a flurry of motion in the corner of his eye. Hands grabbed him. Then heat, dangerous heat.

Sylvia went stock-still, and Wander didn’t understand at first.

Sylvia’s eyes followed something just to the right of Wander’s head, and it was only then that he realized Dominator was holding something to his temple.

Dominator backed away, tripped, and it nudged his skin – it was sharp – a blade fashioned from lava, Wander realized. She was holding a stake to his head.

“If you get any closer, I’ll drive this into his skull,” Dominator said, with a feral, breathless edge.

Sylvia didn’t move, and Wander had never seen her so terrified in his life. Sylvia opened her mouth, but Dominator cut her off, “Don’t think I won’t do it.” It pricked his skin again.

“Stop,” Sylvia whispered, barely heard through her fear. “Just, don’t.” Her hands slowly lifted in surrender.

Wander could barely breathe in the sudden fear that his last chance was just taken from him – that Dominator was going to get away with him, and Sylvia wouldn’t stop her out of fear for his life.

Dominator laughed hoarsely, and took a shaking step back. She was weak, Wander knew that – she was exhausted, injured, scared, and not even close to full power. But she was about to win. Wander clenched his fists. “She-won’t-do-it!” he yelled all at once. Dominator jammed the stake into his mouth, the sharp tip scraped the roof of his mouth. Wander struggled angrily.

“Don’t,” Sylvia begged, but Wander wasn’t having any of it. He managed to shove away the stake, and while Dominator struggled to reassert her grip on him, he rambled, “Sylvia please please stop her-“ but his beloved friend looked terrified, frozen in place.

Something broke. His voice fractured into a scream, “please Sylvia I’d rather die just FIGHT HER!”

Sylvia let out a strangled noise.

Wander could see it already. She wasn’t going to fight. Not with Wander’s life in the balance.

“That’s right,” Dominator purred. “You don’t want your little friend to die, do you?” Another shaking step back, then another. Sylvia squeaked, made a move as if to follow, and the stake burrowed into the fur of his temple, pricked the skin. “I’ll do it,” Dominator said. “If it comes to me or him.”

“Wander,” Sylvia whimpered.

Wander slumped. She wouldn't attack. It was already hopeless. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI We're Summarizing. Dominator removed the core of her ship when she blew it up [a tiny lil cute core], which was alas, going to be hinted at and then explained over the course of the story but we're getting the SparkNotes version of events so now u know. The idea being she can rebuild her ship from just the core. 
> 
> Maybe one day I will have the oomph to write that out in entirety but Today Is Not That Day. 
> 
> This chapter takes place a long time after the previous one, in a new galaxy.

Dominator sat at the control board of her ship, with Wander sullenly placed in her lap. The computer reared up above both of them and displayed the planet Zyro, population four billion and dropping. The video footage was in real time, while Dominator’s ship hovered a safe distance away from the destruction her bots were wreaking.

Wander did his best not to watch, but he couldn’t block out the sounds.

“Ooooh, look!” Dominator crowed, practically bouncing in the chair, and a half second later, Wander heard something that sounded very much like a limb being ripped off of someone’s body. The howl of a scream that proceeded it indicated he was probably right.

“You’re not looking,” Dominator whined.

“I don’t wanna look, Dom…”

“Oh come on, they’re dying whether you look or not-“ she grabbed his chin and forced him to face the screen, just in time for him to witness a bot eviscerate someone from sternum to groin.

His stomach churned.

“Oooh, brutal. I love it.” Her hands absent-mindedly stroked his back. She got very affectionate when watching the destruction of a planet and its people. It seemed to get the violence out of her system, leaving some warm desire to be close with Wander. He hated it, maybe worse than he hated her aggressive moods, because it came at the cost of so much suffering. At least when she was angry, she usually took it out on him and only him, rather than dragging in other innocent people. “The bots have gotten so much more creative after that last update,” she added with fondness in her voice.

There was the sound of tearing flesh, a scream cut off short, and Dominator made a soft noise. She rested her chin on the top of his head, and her hand crept between his legs and settled into a lazy rhythm.

Wander bit his lip. He wanted to shove her off, to protest, to scream that this wasn’t okay and he didn’t want it. But there was no point. He had learned that a while ago. Fighting would only made things worse for himself. He knew what she was leading up to, and he hated it already.

If only distracting her would save somebody. But the bots were machines; they’d keep going regardless. So all this was pointless, for nothing but her pleasure, saving nobody.

With mute acceptance, Wander allowed her to pick him up and re-deposit him on her lap, this time with him facing away from the screen and towards her.

She tugged aside her skirt, eyes still fixed on the screen.

Wander sat still, pulling at his fur anxiously.

“Come on.” Her red eyes flicked down, dark with irritation, “I’m trying to enjoy my entertainment here. Do I have to walk you through every step again?”

“I don’t want to,” he tried, futilely.

She laughed. “Oh my Grop, I thought you were past thinking that mattered. I mean, seriously? Come on, just stick it in.”

There wasn’t any choice. Refusing would just mean more pain. Shuddering, Wander obeyed, sliding into her too-hot slit, and Dominator chuckled softly.

“Wow, you barely even fight any more. Ooh, that bot just tore off that guy’s kneecaps. Come on, move a bit. You think I’m supposed to get off with you doing nothing?”

Wander again obeyed. He felt detached from the events that were happening, but not detached enough.

“Hey nerd, you’re really slacking. Can’t you do better than that?”

Just obey. Just obey, and don’t think about it. If she got off, then maybe she’d stop terrorizing this planet? No, Wander knew that wasn’t true. Nothing would stop her from doing that. He couldn't delude himself into believing that he was helping even a single innocent person by doing this. There was no justification in this. Nothing good about it.

“Don’t do it _harder_ , just suck less about it, hold on – you’re at a bad angle or something, just –“ Dominator gave up on Wander being sufficient on his own, and instead grabbed him to reposition him a little lower on her lap, spreading her legs to accommodate him. She stuck out her tongue thoughtfully, wiggled her hips, and applied pressure to Wander’s right side.

“Oh!” her eyes rounded a bit, a breathless tinge to her voice. “Right there. That’s good. Now you can do it harder.”

Wander was humiliated, with his legs awkwardly hiked up over her thighs. Despair was again creeping in. That this was doing nothing at all but making her happy. But he was so, so afraid of making her angry.

Hating himself, Wander closed his eyes, tried to focus on physical sensations rather than what was actually going on around him. It was made very hard by Dominator’s excited crowing, her occasional commentary on whatever fresh grisly thing she was watching, and the knowledge that while he was doing this, people were dying.

“You’re so tiny, can’t you do more?”

Wander gritted his teeth.

“Better not get wilty again~” Dominator sang. She curled one leg around his back, nudging him closer.

He had to listen as her breath hitched. Had to keep going when her thighs tensed, and her grip on him became painful. At a certain point she simply took over, and shortly after that she let out a soft moan.

Wander felt defeated, wretched, disgusted. The entire time she’d been watching the bots rip people apart, and she was still gazing at the screen. Treating him as nothing more than a toy.

Just as he thought it, she tossed him to the floor, kicked her feet up on the control board, and laughed while admiring another poor soul getting torn to shreds. “This is like, way better than TV,” she called out to him.

Wander curled up and cried.

 

 

 

This was Wander’s new life. To be used as nothing more than a toy, and to endure whatever tortures amused Dominator. When she was hurting him, he at least felt glad that she wasn’t hurting anybody else. But increasingly, she was bored by his lackluster reactions. Increasingly, she turned to the destruction of other planets, which seemed to endlessly entertain her.

Watching the ruin of one such planet through her windshield, with Wander perched on her lap as he often was, Dominator saw the hero of this galaxy. He was small, with big grey ears, a loose dark blue hoodie and a flicking tail, and he darted and zoomed amongst the residents, helping where he could, evacuating as many people as possible and assisting those that had been injured.

“Look at him,” Dominator said thoughtfully, peering intently through the windshield. “We’ve seen him before, haven’t we?”

Wander had. He remembered seeing the little cat-like creature on the last planet, dodging Dombots and dragging citizens to safety. Wander hadn’t mentioned him to Dominator, hoping that the fellow would pass her notice. But things don’t pass Dominator's notice for long.

Dominator munched on popcorn and wiggled her feet on the control board.

“He’s kind of cute, isn’t he?” she said conversationally.

Wander felt cold inside, and very afraid.

“He’s not like most of the hero types, that strut around thinking they’re great. Looks he just saves people because he _cares_.”

“Don’t,” Wander whispered.

"Don't what, dork?"

"Don't kill him-"

“You got it, Wander.” Dominator grabbed the little intercom which kept her in communication with bots – normally used for delivering especially grisly requests. “Bots,” she said, and her grin was wicked, “keep that little cat alive. You hear me? No firing at him, no accidental shooting – you better not put a single scratch on him.”

Wander met her persimmon eyes with confusion, and she ruffled his hair.

“See, Wander? I can be nice.”

 

 

Dominator’s new mission became stalking this hero – which wasn’t made difficult, because he turned up at almost every planet she set to destroying. She liked nothing more than watching him rush around to save as many as people as he could, all while poking fun at him and talking about how pitiful he was to Wander. She took to firing specifically at the ships this new hero managed to send people off in.  

At one point, she decided to personally go down to the planet to greet him - Wander didn't know how that interaction went, but she came back with blood on her shirt, and a giddiness in her step. 

“He's hilarious!” she’d declared, dragging Wander to dinner, and as they ate, she crowed about how adorable he was, how glaring his weaknesses were.

“Please don’t hurt him,” was one of the only things Wander dared to say.

It immediately annoyed Dominator. She retorted, “Why not? At least he’s interesting – you just mope around and let me do whatever I want to you. Sure, you complain and you go all, ‘Dom, don’t do that, don’t do this…’ but like, it’s painfully obvious you’ve totally given up.”

Wander was silent.

“I mean, you don’t do anything anymore.” Dominator poked at her food with her fork and frowned at Wander. “Don’t you miss how intense our interactions would be?”

“Not really…” Wander averted his eyes.

“Well, I do. I miss the screaming, and crying, the no no no DOM PLEASE!” She rested her cheek on her palm. “Man, I miss when you actually believed you could change me. That was so pitiful. Like, whoa, you really didn’t give up for so long. You were such a fighter.” There was wistfulness in her voice, and her eyes were distant. "I miss that."

 

 

 

Her dissatisfaction with Wander grew, as did Wander’s unease and fear.

For several weeks, she didn’t cause any real severe physical damage, nothing past bruises and minor cuts. She geared all her attention towards mowing down planet after planet.

Then one day, entirely out of nowhere, she pulled Wander close and snapped his forearm, for no apparent hymn or reason. While Wander writhed on the ground sobbing and clutching his arm, she watched with bored detachment. After a few minutes, she walked away.

Wander wasn’t sure what point she was trying to make, if any at all, but since then, he was extra extra wary around her. He had come to assume a level of immunity – that she wouldn’t cause enough damage to interfere with his purpose to her.

That was no longer true, he felt.  

He didn’t like the way she looked at him: he never had, anyway, but it was different now. She spent a lot more time looking out the windshield at the new hero. 

 

 

 

"You aren't interesting anymore," she said one day, as if commenting on mildly bad weather. 

"'msorry-" Wander started, because any sign of displeasure from her could very easily end in pain for him. Better to start apologizing quickly, and-

"No," she said, and when she looked at him there was no amusement. "That's your problem. You're just like, a robot. Trained. Like them-" she waved at the gathered Dombots, and their static ominous orange eyes. "I mean, where your _spark?_ You're _boring_. You've been boring for _months_."

Wander rubbed his hands together. "I'm sorry-?" 

There was a whir of machinery.

Wander looked up to find himself staring down the barrel of a lava cannon. Behind the barrel, her red eyes were not cruel, not hateful, but curious. As if she didn't know whether she wanted to shoot or not, and was trying to work out whether she would regret it. 

For a long, long time, Wander had been thinking he might be better off dead. He wasn't helping anybody. He was only witnessing the suffering of others, and was suffering himself. It was only now, with the prospect of death so close, that he abruptly realized he was very much _not_ okay with dying.  

"Dominator," he whispered hoarsely. "Please don't. Please. Please-"

She tilted her head to the side. Deciding. Then she fired.

 


End file.
